Chapter 308： Rurik's contract at Elon Orava Fort

Leurik affirms that "productivity determines production relations" is a truth.

For the iron and steel pine tribe that was once in the fishing and hunting economy, when their people began to use iron tools a lot, they began to use the water power of the river, and the fire power of the furnace, their productivity had undergone a qualitative change.

Rurik felt that he did not have any need to beat the Corvins with a whip. The productivity of their entire tribe has been greatly increased. To obtain the value of their labor more reasonably, it is better to treat them as slaves than to continue to use them as slaves. Turning all into "tax citizens" has more economic value.

"Now I want to establish a contract with you. First of all, I must declare that the relationship between you and me is still the master and the servant, but you have another identity, the taxman."

"Taxer? What is this?" Metzasta heard this Gnostic vocabulary for the first time.

"For the time being, you don't need to figure it out. In short, I need you to work for me for a long time. I hope that it is not through persecution, but you happily go to smelt iron and contribute to me. Now I stipulate that from next year, your tribe I have to make two thousand axes and five hundred draft axes for me every year. Do you understand?"

Although Mezzasta heard it really, he also felt Sisi's malice, but his body was trembling.

"My lord, your request turned out to be..."

"What?" Rurik tilted his head, "I think my requirements are too high? The people I saw you already know how to smelt, and even know how to build stoves. Your people know how to burn charcoal, and they know how to use reindeer to go. Transport ore. I was planning to produce 5,000 axe a year for your mission. I have lowered the standard, what else do you want?"

Mezzasta gritted his teeth. He considered that the current daily output of axe is relatively stable at 50 a day, although there was a period of time when the daily output reached 100. It was entirely based on the hard work of excellent Ross blacksmiths and advance A large amount of ore is hoarded. The Ross people want to leave for the time being, the smelting work for the rest of the time is entirely the business of the Kewen people. Due to the amount of ore transportation, the amount of charcoal burning, and even the labor use of the mature men, Jifang has reached a steady state, and the production capacity has also entered a steady state.

Rurik knew about this, and the order he put forward also estimated the production strength of Mezzasta's men.

Mezzasta responded hard: "Well, I will do this."

"You don't have to be so desperate this year." Rurik waved his hand. "In your hometown, we have an appointment. In September, we will go to Oulu to collect tributes from the Kovin people. For your steel squirrel tribe, you must pay this year. The tribute is a thousand axes! From the summer solstice to September, we come again, you have more than two months to make them. Oh or for you, it is not a tribute, but a tax. You actually only have to pay a thousand If you make more tax on the axe, I will exchange it with you for oats and flax."

Upon hearing this, Mezzasta instantly realized the atmosphere of business.

"Ah! As long as we pay what you need and we make more things, they belong to our tribe?"

"Of course! Your over-produced axe can only be sold to me. As for leather, you should also sell it to me first, and we will give you a better price. If you sell things that should not be sold without authorization , It’s okay to sell it to us Rus. If it is sold to other tribes, or even Balmerks, I will be punished if I find it.

I think you don’t really need silver coins, you need high-quality grains and cloth even more. So in your and me transactions, I will actively use flax and oats.

Listen, you only have the obligation to accept this contract, and you must accept it! I won't listen to any reasons why you can't complete the task. Those are all excuses. If you really fail to do it, you will also be punished.

listen! Don't disappoint my trust in you. You have to understand that your son and daughter are all controlled by me. "

Rurik’s determination is really every word. Mezzasta was fortunate that he could lead the people to produce more things in exchange for more consumer goods, making everyone’s life better. The problem now becomes, Ang If they slack off, the Ross people will definitely take revenge.

Rurik sensed the other's fear, "Are you nervous? Oh, of course you can be nervous. You must understand that there is no free meal in this world. After all, I am your master, and we Rus are the conquerors! Your current stability is pure and pure. It’s my charity, and you have to pay the price. I don’t ask you too much, you even have the ability to earn private wealth, and I have no intention of looting your private property anymore.”

Mezzasta nodded: "I think, I still have to pay the price further."

"Yes! If there is a war and an enemy attacks us Ruths, you Corvin must organize an army to fight alongside us. In terms of combat, I am absolutely fair. If your people make a war, you will get the Ruths. Warriors have exactly the same reward."

"Huh? This..."

"What? Surprised?"

"We..." For a while, Mezzasta's mind was very confused. He felt that the Ross people were harsh for a while, and then felt that they were reasonable, and now they have become kind?

Mezzasta couldn't use a simple word to summarize the noble boy in front of him. Because of the status quo, he knew he had only one option, and he agreed with all the requirements of Rurik.

He stopped talking, and bowed and signaled: "I fully agree with your decision. I will do things well."

"Get up!" Rurik guessed that the other party still had a lot of questions, and any questions were meaningless now. "You just do things according to my instructions, but I will no longer provide you with a large amount of food for free. You will get food on your own, such as hunting or fishing. The northern rivers have a lot of catches. You can Get it by yourself. If you don’t have enough food, don’t worry, I will organize a fishing boat to transport you the catch, and you will exchange it with me with smelted ironware, or ore and leather. Remember! Only ironware, if you sell it privately If you give it to outsiders, you will be punished by me, and you will bear all the consequences."

Mezzasta had thought of this a long time ago, knowing that he couldn't eat a lot of high-quality food forever. Leading the tribe to return to the old tradition of hunting and fishing, he didn't have much pressure. Besides, there were a lot of beasts in the area, and when the tribe began to use better arrows, the efficiency of hunting was greatly improved.

However, another problem is that if you separate your hands for hunting, your own manpower for smelting iron will be reduced. Of course women can go hunting. Most of the women are archers, but as a leader, you can't overly assign the responsibility of getting food to the women of the tribe. I am afraid that it is most suitable to strike iron and mine ore in exchange for the food provided by Rurik.

In any case, Mezzasta knew that he only had his identity.

In this way, Rurik added some clauses and made a written contract on a wooden board in Roman letters that Metzasta could not understand.

The two sides signed a contract, so that the defeated steel squirrel tribe is no longer strictly a slave.

They are what Rurik calls a special kind of "tax citizens", or the first "industrial population" of the Rus tribe. Rurik dreams of owning his own big iron factory. This dream seems to be implemented in Aylon Orava Fort. The Corvin people who make a living from fishing and hunting have turned into "steel workers" because of the waterwheel. Put into use, Rurik believes in their production capacity.

Rurik's return date is approaching, what does it mean for Aaron Orava? I am afraid it is a new beginning.

Because of the contract, all the ironware produced before the summer solstice, Rurik plans to ship most of them back to Roseburg.

Together on the list of goods is a large amount of rough tanned beast leather.

The finished ferrochrome tools are better than ordinary quenched wrought iron tools, and are even comparable to low-carbon steel tools. Rurik hopes to make up for his financial expenditure by selling all of them.

All kinds of ironware are always very profitable, even the most common and inferior wrought iron, even a small axe, is worth as much as a ferret.

Today, the refined ironware has become extremely profitable, and its value has far surpassed that of leather.

So what is the value of the Ross people's efforts to catch beasts and peel their leather?

I am afraid that its commercial value has weakened, but leather is not an ordinary commodity. In areas lacking flax and cotton cultivation and even trade, leather is the only clothing material for the locals.

The leather trade is still the economic pillar of the Rus tribe, and now it is probably the dawn of the so-called multi-faceted blossom.

Rurik was already counting the goods to be brought back. As the statistics went deeper, the scale of it really surprised him.

For example, the once very precious polar bear skin is cherished because it always risked its life to kill a polar bear. Hunting a polar bear is no less than a life-and-death struggle between two warriors.

However, with the use of the crossbow, the efficiency of hunting polar bears has been greatly improved.

As the master, Rurik received a lot of worship. There are as many as 80 polar bear skins and as many as 50 brown bear skins.

This is only bear skin. Of all the leathers, the most numerous is actually the long-legged snow rabbit.

Rurik noticed early on that those long-legged and wary snow rabbits tried to catch and raise them really hard. The ones that can be raised are actually Oryctolagus, but their activity area needs to be warmer in the south. For example, in the area of ​​Fort Shilla, there are many short-legged rabbits living in them. They are easier to domesticate after being caught. They are the so-called domestic rabbits.

Snow rabbits are food for wolves, foxes, and even bears, but even if they are very alert, they cannot guess human traps, and arrows that come from nowhere can make a fatal blow.

So how many rabbit skins did Rurik get?

This number is a bit shocking.

Not only does the number of snow rabbit skins exceed 1,000, but the area of ​​each one is really not small.

It can be said that this is an unexpected gain for the pioneers. The northern land-Russ people are not here for the first time, but they used to hunt here in winter. Under such circumstances, it is quite difficult to catch the white snow hare.

Although the Ross fleet arrived at its destination in May, it is said that it came earlier than it came by coincidence. Ross Hunter and Corvin Hunter, they saw extremely bold and faded snow rabbits every day during large-scale logging. Jumping horizontally around oneself repeatedly, they are so bold and provocative, is there any reason not to hunt? !

May to June is the breeding period of the Finnish Snow Hare. They are always alert in winter, only the past two months have been uncharacteristically.

In a sense, a large number of animal resources in the region, such as snow rabbit resources, maintain Mezzasta's confidence.

According to the current price level of Roseburg due to the influx of silver coins, the reindeer skin that was once sold for only one silver coin has doubled now, or the price of most materials has doubled. In this way, the price of a snow rabbit skin can also reach a silver coin.

The already lively wharf is now becoming more lively, and more and more people set foot on the boardwalk. As large cargo ships arrive at the port one after another, the cargo shipment has finally begun.

Those Russian fighters who followed Rurik, the "war chief" who fought in the north, their journeys of hunting, logging and construction are finally coming to an end. At first, the soldiers had the urge to fight an unknown enemy, but life quickly became boring. Only hunting and eating can make everyone happy.

Finally going home!

The negative emotions concealed in people's hearts disappeared without a trace as the substantial cargo ships approached the port.

They became porters and began to load Rurik’s spoils to the ship. And each of them has his own small burlap pocket on his belt, which is full of tinkling silver coins, which is the salary of everyone's work for the past two months.

Metzasta, the leader of the steel squirrel tribe, stood on the wooden wall, watching all this with gusto.

For him, when Rurik left with a large amount of goods, his tribe would also welcome his summer solstice priests in a brand new settlement, and the shaman was already preparing for this.

Mezzasta made his own judgment. The so-called full implementation of the contract, after his tribe paid heavy taxes, there are still plenty of opportunities to accumulate wealth for himself.

He himself has ordered to his own people that all newly produced ironware after the summer solstice is not allowed to be sold to Ross fishermen in private, and the only buyer is Rurik himself. Once the illegal transaction was discovered, Mezzasta threatened to take drastic measures against the offenders, that is, to cut off his hands and be punished.

Issuing this violent and harsh order is really his helpless move. He didn’t know what Rurik’s punishment was. Rurik did not clarify what he said. This unknown fear continued to ferment, which made Mezzasta believe that Rurik’s boy had already taken extreme measures to punish him. , As if he ordered the execution of Woimakashad.

But Mezzasta noticed many operational loopholes in the contract, or the so-called loopholes are actually the backdoor of Ruri Kliu.

He noticed that the biggest limitation of the contract lies in the transaction of ironware. That child obviously wants to monopolize all ironware. Transactions outside the iron trade are not too severely restricted.

Yes, Rurik left a back door for these Kewen people in the very important leather trade.

Mezzasta knew that Rurik was encouraging his own people to sell the leather to him. If it was sold to other people, there would be no punishment for this behavior. In other words, Rurik actually acquiesced to the free trade of leather.

One point is that the traditional economic foundation of the Kovin tribes is based on the leather trade. In the Oulu River Basin, the Kovin people completely regarded squirrel skins as hard currency. Squirrel skins were a special currency form in ancient Finland. , Anything of value can be measured by squirrel skin. Lurik must first rob them frantically, and he knows that he can't take it too much. Based on this idea, the traditional economic model of the Kewen people must be preserved.

The very real problem is that the Corvins have almost no silver coins in their hands and lack of such a trading medium. After the iron trade is monopolized by themselves, of course they can only hope to fish and hunt and exchange materials with the Russians with leather. Due to the relatively long production cycle of ironware, 1,000 axes are taxed this year. The production of these axes takes a long time, and they cannot bring benefits to the iron squirrel tribe.

If even the leather trade has to be monopolized by themselves, I am afraid that their hunting enthusiasm will not be high.

In fact, Mezzasta also learned a truth from the contract, the so-called unconstrained is compliant.

For example, Rurik did not clearly state whether the remuneration paid to the Ross fishermen for repairing ironware by the newly promoted Kewen blacksmith was also included in the iron smelting income. If you don't say it clearly, it doesn't count!

In Rurik's eyes, he is willing to believe that the Kovin people are simple as a whole, and he is also willing to believe that the Kovin people are never stupid, and that their failure is only due to the poor quality of the soldiers and the backward weapons and equipment.

Now, they set foot on the battleship of the Ross people, and their weaponry level was greatly improved. In the iron squirrel tribe, all archers are equipped with iron cluster arrows, all marching rods are equipped with iron spearheads, and the axes for logging have all turned into top-quality ferrochrome. They transitioned from the Stone Age to the Iron Age in an instant.

Just believing that they are smart, Rurik has to beware of them.

Rurik estimated that he would not be able to completely prevent secretly the Kovin from selling the iron weapons to the Ross fishermen. After all, the two sides must have real trading needs.

Anyway, the contract has been confirmed, and the psychological bottom line of Rülik is their tax on two thousand axes each year in the future. If it is found that they are trading privately, the so-called punishment method is actually not bloody, or it is a soft knife cutting meat, that is, a punitive tax increase.

With the increase in population and the upgrading of production tools, their production efficiency can only continue to rise, for which more taxes will be charged. How to increase taxes reasonably? Then claim that they were stealing and selling ironware, and that tax increases are a reasonable punishment.

Of course, since going through the battle and personally commanding the soldiers to kill a large number of enemies, the dark and violent side of Rick's heart has also stood up unknowingly.

Although he is not a natural violent person, he is now forced to become a hardliner by the times.

What if the Iron Squirrel Tribe becomes lazy they cannot fulfill the tax requirements? Then we can only resort to harsh measures, such as imposing penalties similar to the "Eleven Laws" against the scientific and literary people, tying up the unlucky ones and piercing them with arrows, and using this harsh method to force them to believe that the authority of the master cannot be violated. , The task of confession has to be completed by any means.

Before they delayed the date, Rurik certainly wouldn't show the violence, he didn't even tell Mezzasta what was a "real punishment."

He consciously felt that this set of punishment methods that were temporarily buried in his heart was quite the harshness of the "Qin Law", and the method of slashing in time was a bit harsher. For servants, this method is still the simplest and most effective.

Thinking about it one level higher, Rurik became more and more convinced that the entire tribe was in a savage and harsh environment, facing the situation of the tribe’s enemies and ghostly allies, and even the residents of Port Narvik who didn’t know their enemies or friends. Too extreme, so the entire tribe also needs to use an extreme method to overcome all difficulties.

In the final analysis, the greatest danger is still the military threat from foreign enemies.

Coupled with the ambition of Rülik, I am afraid that arming the Ross tribe into a large barracks and bringing all the servants into the "big barracks" is a good strategy.