Chapter 232 Advanced experience in villages and communities and backward small peasant society

Author: Orthodox Khan Ali Buge

Chapter 232 Advanced experience in villages and communities and backward small peasant society

"Then it seems that there are indeed some very special things." Tuo Huan gradually understood what she meant: "These situations will also have an impact on management and recruitment."

"That's right." Mrs. Ilena nodded: "The village community can be said to have influenced the overall character of the civilians."

"Villages are often extremely conservative. This kind of conservatism is not just a requirement for the atmosphere and morality, but opposes all changes. Their greatest wish is not to happen any accident and not to change anything. Just like their fathers and ancestors, they spend their whole life boring but safely."

"I'm afraid of change because there's nothing good about changes, right?" Guo Kang asked.

"Yes," said Mrs. Ilena. "Generally speaking, there are only two types of external changes."

"The more common one is the bad idea that the lord came up with. He only knows how to do it blindly, making the situation worse and destroying the original production;"

"The other one that is relatively rare is a good idea that the lord has come up with. It can improve productivity and management levels, so that the lord can collect taxes more efficiently."

"So, the villagers habitually oppose these new changes. In fact, it is not their conservativeness, but they suffered too much in the past. Wherever the nobles are a little more reliable, their attitude will actually soften a lot."

"Uh..." Guo Kang was speechless for a moment.

"Maybe for these reasons, the villages and communities are also very xenophobic as a whole. Their manors can be self-sufficient - or not." Mrs. Ilena continued: "Because most areas, villages and cities are loose, and the transportation is very backward and very unsafe, so they can only live like this."

"That's really a big difference." Tuo Huan also nodded.

Guo Kang also agreed.

The Serris-style villages of this period, and even the Serris-style villages that began in the Qin and Han dynasties, have never been a place to be self-sufficient.

Private trade has never stopped, and the production of agriculture and handicrafts is not limited to the family. In order to improve work efficiency, spontaneous alliances among many families have always been common. A large number of tools, equipment, and materials are not produced by the family themselves, and they need to be continuously purchased from professional workshops.

And in this era, when we consider the year, the cotton promoted by Huang Daopo should have been spreading in Jiangnan.

Historically, from the late Ming Dynasty, the agriculture and cotton textile industries in Jiangnan would promote and upgrade each other. Now, without the interference of Jingnan, the agriculture and handicrafts of the Ming Dynasty would probably enter an era that seemed crazy to Europeans more quickly.

The farmers of Seris did not reject new technologies, but devoted their financial resources and energy to purchase more efficient tools and use more efficient working methods. There was no "involuntary" or stagnation in rural production, but the degree of specialization was getting higher and higher, the division of labor was getting tighter, and the technical level and efficiency were also improving.

During this period, the Jiangnan region had grown from four to five people to feed a population that was separated from farming, and developed to one in one to two people. And these extra spare populations, largely engaged in handicrafts, had the terrifying export ability of this era.

It is also because of the improvement of efficiency that rural peasants no longer participate in the cultivation of rations, but basically leave the field to work and engage in the textile industry that is more efficient for them: According to the calculations of later scholars, a woman engaged in cotton textiles can have an average daily income of 80% of the farmers' daily income; while if she engages in agriculture, it can only reach 30% to 60%.

Therefore, contrary to the general impression, "men farming and women farming" is the norm in the period of backward production of Serris, while "men farming and women weaving" is actually a more efficient choice after the development of technology.

The products produced are far more than "self-sufficiency", and the proportion of entering the market has always been quite high. Moreover, with the development of production, there is a trend of increasing day by day.

In fact, this trend continued until the middle and late Qing Dynasty. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, at least 3 million to 5.7 million women in various prefectures and counties in Jiangnan were engaged in textiles, and produced 100 million cotton pieces each year, of which 40 million were exported to the local area, entered long-distance trade, and even exported to foreign countries.

The data may not be easy to remember, but some dramatic conclusions are enough to show a lot.

For example, the British launched a war in the late Qing Dynasty, with the goal of allowing the Qing government to open ports and dump goods, thereby regaining a huge trade deficit. However, after the ports were opened, the deficit became even greater.

In the Jiangnan and Lingnan areas, there were limited places where cotton could be grown, and the raw material output was always insufficient. After the war, it became more convenient to import British goods, so various places were able to import a large amount of Indian cotton and purchase Western machines.

This continued to improve the efficiency of handicrafts. In the decade beginning in 1845, the Qing Dynasty imported British cotton cloth decreased by 30%. What's more serious is that a large amount of Qing Dynasty cotton cloth poured into the closer British Indian colonies, causing the cotton textile industry around Mumbai to injure and eventually almost completely collapse.

In 1856, the British Parliament counted economic data and found that since 1850, the deficit against the Qing Dynasty had doubled - this battle was not only in vain, but also made the situation even worse.

The wisdom of the MPs seemed to be unable to understand this situation, and they were puzzled. In the end, they could only forcefully attribute it to "the trade port was not open enough, and they had to be opened again", and the Second War was launched for this.

Therefore, the definitions of "men farming and women weaving", "self-sufficiency", and "small peasant economy" that are defined by the post-world are not so much as describing the situation of European villages. In Series, these concepts are like "sacred", "Rome", and "imperial", which are words that cannot exist together with each other.

Thinking of this, many things can make sense.

"By the way, I heard that there is a tradition of advocating suffering in the Ross Village community. Is that true?" Guo Kang happened to think of a question he had been curious about.

"There is such a saying." Mrs. Ilena nodded: "The Ross worships 'holy fool', and one of the most important behaviors of saint fools is 'passion'."

"The way of doing things is often very pious and simple. But to the eyes of the world, it is very stupid, even almost crazy. They give up their physical enjoyment and comfortable life and exile themselves for faith."

"Many deeds of holy fools have plots such as beatings and humiliation. However, these 'miserable' things are part of the deeds of holy fools and the source of their sacredness. It can be said that the more suffering they suffer, the more sacred and great the holy fools will be."

"Oh, it's really hard to understand." Tuo Huan sighed.

"This is also forced by the environment." Mrs. Ilena shook her head and said, "The life in the village is too hard. If you don't admit the greatness of suffering, you can rest assured everyone, and there is no other way."

"These characteristics are quite obvious." Guo Kang thought for a while.

The pursuit of absolute equality, willing to share poverty, pursuing collectivism but being closed and backward villages, and praising suffering customs... After careful consideration, this has nothing to do with the tradition of Serris, but rather the typical Ross village community style. After understanding their early history, it seems that these are not difficult to understand.

"So, do you hope to reform the village community in your hometown based on our village management methods?" he asked Mrs. Ilena.

Mrs. Ilena looked at him in surprise.

"You said this." Theodora smiled and said, "If you don't do this, should you still let the Serris-style rural areas learn Ross Village?"

"Yes." Mrs. Ilena also said with a strange look on her face: "Can we still teach the Romans to farm?"

"Oh, it's nothing, I just said it casually." Guo Kang quickly fooled the topic.
Chapter completed!