Rurik firmly believes that it is a truth that "productivity determines production relations".
For the Iron Pine Tribe, which was once a fishing and hunting economy, when their people began to use a large number of iron tools, began to use the power of water in rivers, and the power of fire in stoves, their productivity changed qualitatively. change.
Rurik felt that there was no need to whip the Kovin people with a whip. The productivity of their entire tribe had been greatly improved. To obtain the value of their labor more reasonably, it was better to continue to treat them as Slaves, it would be better to turn them all into "tax citizens" with 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 that of master and servant, but you have another identity, taxman."< /p>
"Tax people? What is this?" Mechasta heard this Norse word for the first time.
"You don't need to figure it out for the time being. In short, I need you to work for me for a long time. I hope that it will not be through force, but that you will happily smelt iron and contribute to me. Now I stipulate that, Starting next year, your tribe must make two thousand axes and five hundred manuscript axes for me every year. Do you understand?"
Although Mechasta heard it very clearly, he also felt it. When it came to Sisi Malice, his body was trembling.
"Sir, your request is actually..."
"What?" Rurik tilted his head, "You think my request is too high? I saw your request People already know how to smelt and even build furnaces. Your people know how to burn charcoal and use reindeer to transport ore. I originally planned to give you the task of producing 5,000 axes a year. I have lowered the standard. What else do you want?"
Mechasta gritted his teeth. He considered that the current daily output of axes was relatively stable at fifty axes. Although there was a time when the daily output reached one hundred, then It is entirely based on the hard work of the excellent Ross blacksmiths and the accumulation of large amounts of ore in advance. The Rus people have to leave for the time being, and the smelting work in the remaining time is all the Covin people's own business. Due to the amount of ore transported, the amount of charcoal fired, and even the use of labor by mature men, several parties have reached a steady state, causing production capacity to also enter a steady state.
Rurik knew this, and the orders he put forward also had an estimate of the production strength of Mechasta's men.
Mechasta responded with difficulty: "Okay, I will do that."
"You don't have to work so hard this year." Rurik waved his hand and said, "We have an appointment in your hometown. In September, we will go to the Oulu River to collect the tribute from the Kovin people. For your Iron Squirrel tribe, the tribute you must pay this year is a thousand axes! We will come again from the summer solstice to September , you have more than two months to make them. Oh, maybe it is not a tribute for you, but a tax. You only have to pay a tax of one thousand axes. If you make more, I will use oats. , exchange it with you for flax.”
When he heard this, Mechasta instantly realized the commercial atmosphere.
"Ah! As long as we pay what you need and we make more things, they will belong to our tribe?"
"Of course! You overproduced You can only sell your axes to me. As for the leather, you should give priority to selling it to me. We will give you a better price. If you sell things that should not be sold without authorization, it is better to sell them to us Russians. If you sell it to other tribes, or even to the Balmoks, you will be punished if you find it.
I think you don’t need silver coins very much, you need high-quality grain and cloth more, so you. In my trade, I will take the initiative to use flax and oats.
Listen, you are only obliged to accept this contract, and you must accept it! I won't listen to any reasons why you can't complete the task. They are all excuses. If you really can't complete it, you will be punished.
Listen! You must also understand that your son and daughter are both mine. "Control."
Rurik's determination is true every step of the way. Mechasta is glad that he can lead his tribe to produce more things in exchange for more consumer goods, so that everyone can Life has gotten better, but now the problem becomes that if Ang is slacking off, the Russians will definitely take revenge.
Rurik noticed the other party'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 Russians are the conquerors. Your current stability is purely my charity, and you have to pay the price. My requirements for you are not high. You can even earn private wealth, and I have no intention of plundering your private property. ."
Mechasta nodded: "I think I still have to pay a further price."
"Yes! If there is a war and an enemy attacks us Ross, You Corvins must organize an army to fight alongside us. I am absolutely fair in fighting. If your people perform meritorious service, they will receive exactly the same reward as the Rus warriors."
" Ah? This..."
"What? Are you surprised?"
"We..." For a moment, Mechasta felt that the Russians were harsh. One moment I thought they were being reasonable, and now they are being kind?
Mechasta could not use a simple word to summarize the noble boy in front of him. Due to the current situation, he knew that he had only one option, and he agreed with all Rurik's requirements.
He said no more, and bowed down to signal: "I fully agree with your decision, and I will do the job well."
"Get up!" Rurik It is estimated that the other party still has many questions, and any questions are meaningless now. "You just do what I tell you, except that I will no longer provide you with a lot of free food. You will get the food on your own."things, such as hunting or fishing. The rivers in the north have a lot of fish, you can get it yourself. If the food is not enough, don’t worry, I will organize fishing boats to transport the catch to you, and you can exchange it with me for smelted iron, ore, or leather. remember! Only ironware, if you sell it to outsiders privately, you will be punished by me, and you will bear all the consequences. ”
Mechasta has thought of this for a long time. He knows that he can’t eat a lot of high-quality food forever. He doesn’t have much pressure to lead the tribe back to the old tradition of hunting and fishing. Besides, the people in this area There are a lot of wild beasts, and when the tribe began to use better arrows, the hunting efficiency greatly improved.
However, another problem is that if manpower is allocated to hunting, the manpower to smelt iron will be lost. Of course, women can go hunting, and most women are archers, but as a leader, they really can't leave the responsibility of getting food to the women of the tribe, for example, in exchange for Rurik. The food provided is the most appropriate.
In any case, Mechasta knew that he could only agree with it.
In this way, Rurik added some terms. A written contract was written on the wooden board in Roman letters that Mechasta could not understand.
The two parties signed a contract, making the defeated Iron Squirrel tribe no longer slaves in the strict sense.
They are what Rurik calls a special kind of "tax people", or they have become the earliest "industrial population" of the Ross tribe. Rurik dreams of owning his own large iron factory. , this dream seems to be implemented in Elon-Olava Fort. The Kovin people who make a living by fishing and hunting have turned into "steel-making workers". Also because of the putting into use of waterwheels, Rurik believes in their production capabilities. .
Rurik’s return is coming, what does it mean for Ailon Orava Castle?
Because of the contract, everything produced before the summer solstice. Rurik plans to transport most of the ironware back to Fort Ross.
Also on the cargo list is a large amount of roughly tanned beast leather.
The finished chromium tools are better than ordinary hardened wrought iron tools, and are even comparable to mild steel tools. Rurik hopes to make up for his financial expenses by selling them all. /p>
All kinds of iron tools are always very profitable. Even the most common and inferior wrought iron, even a small axe, is worth as much as a piece of ferret skin.
Nowadays, finely processed iron tools have become extremely profitable, and their value has far exceeded that of leather.
So what is the value of the Russians' efforts to capture beasts and skin them?
I am afraid that its commercial value has been weakened, but leather is not an ordinary commodity. In areas where there is a lack of flax and cotton cultivation and even trade, leather is the only leather trade material for the locals.
It is still the economic backbone of the Ross tribe, andToday may be the so-called dawn of multifaceted blooming.
Rurik was already counting the goods to be brought back. As the statistics went deeper, he was a little surprised by the scale.
For example, the skin of a polar bear was once very precious. Its value lies in the fact that killing a polar bear always involves risking one's life. Hunting a polar bear is no less than a life-and-death struggle between two warriors.
However, with the use of crossbows, the efficiency of hunting polar bears has greatly improved.
As the master, Rurik received a lot of offerings. There are as many as eighty polar bear skins and as many as fifty brown bear skins.
This is just bear skin. Among all leathers, the most abundant is actually the long-legged snow hare.
Rurik noticed early on that it was difficult to capture and raise those long-legged and alert snowshoe hares. The ones that can really be raised are cave rabbits, but their activity area needs the warmer south. For example, in the area where New Roseburg is located, there are many short-legged cave rabbits. They are easier to domesticate after being captured. They are the so-called domestic rabbits.
Snowshoe hares are originally food for wolves, foxes, and even bears. Now, even if they are very alert, they cannot guess human traps, and even get fatal blows from arrows that fly from nowhere.
So how many rabbit skins did Rurik get?
This number is somewhat shocking.
The number of snow rabbit skins not only exceeds a thousand, but the area of each one is quite large.
It can be said that this was an unexpected harvest for the pioneers. This was not the first time that the Russians came to the northern land. It was just that everyone used to hunt here in winter. Under such circumstances, it was quite difficult to capture snow rabbits that were all white. for difficulty.
However, the Ross fleet arrived at its destination in May. It is better to arrive early than to arrive at the right time. When Ross hunters and Kewen hunters were engaged in large-scale logging, they saw extremely bold and bold hunters every day. The white-haired snowshoe rabbits jumped around him repeatedly. They were so bold and provocative. How could they not hunt them? !
May to June is the breeding season of Finnish snowshoe hares. They are always alert in winter, but these two months are unusual.
In a sense, the large number of animal resources in the region, such as snowshoe rabbit resources, maintains Mechasta's self-confidence.
According to the current price level in Roseburg due to the influx of large amounts of silver coins, reindeer skins that once only sold for one silver coin have now doubled, or in other words, the prices of most supplies have doubled. In this way, the price of a snow rabbit skin can reach one silver coin.
The already lively dock is now even more lively, with more and more people stepping onto the boardwalk. As large cargo ships arrive at the port, the loading of goods has finally begun.
Those Rus warriors who followed Rurik, the "war chief", who fought in the north, their journey of hunting, logging and construction is finally coming to an end. At first, the majority of soldiers had the urge to fight an unknown enemy, but life soon became boring. Only hunting and eating could satisfy everyone.hapiness.
Finally going home!
The negative emotions hidden in people's hearts disappeared without a trace in an instant as those large and sturdy cargo ships docked.
They became porters and began loading Rurik's loot onto the large ships. And each of them has his own small linen bag hanging on his belt, which is full of tinkling silver coins. This is the reward for everyone's work in the past two months.
Mechasta, the leader of the Iron Squirrel Tribe, stood on the wooden wall, watching all this with relish.
For him, when Rurik left with a large amount of goods, his tribe also had to welcome its summer solstice priest in a brand-new settlement, and the shaman was already preparing for this.
Mechasta made his own judgment. By fully implementing the contract, his tribe would still have plenty of opportunities to accumulate wealth for itself after paying heavy taxes.
He himself has ordered his own people that all newly produced iron tools after the summer solstice are not allowed to be sold privately to Russian fishermen. The only buyer is Rurik himself. Once the illegal transactions were discovered, Mechasta threatened to take drastic measures against the violators, including cutting off their hands.
Issuing this violent and harsh order was really a helpless act for him. He didn't know what Rurik's punishment was. Rurik didn't explain clearly. This unknown fear continued to ferment, making Mechasta believe that Rurik, the boy, would already take extreme measures to punish him. , as if he had ordered the execution of Woima Kashad.
But Mechasta noticed many operable loopholes in the contract, or the so-called loopholes were actually backdoors left by Rurik.
He noticed that the biggest restriction of the contract was related to the transaction of iron tools. That kid obviously wants to monopolize all the iron tools. Transactions other than the iron trade were not severely restricted.
Yes, Rurik left a back door for these Coven people in the very important leather trade.
Mechasta knew that Rurik encouraged his people to sell the leather to him. If he sold it to others, there would be no penalty for this behavior. In other words, Rurik actually acquiesced to the free trade of leather.
There is a saying that the traditional economic basis of the tribes of the Kovin people is based on the leather trade. In the Oulu River Basin, the Kovin people completely regard squirrel skin as hard currency, and squirrel skin is a kind of hard currency. A special currency form in ancient Finland, everything of value can be measured in squirrel skins. Rurik wanted to plunder crazily from them first, and he also knew that he could not ask for too much. Based on this idea, the traditional economic model of the Kovin people must be preserved.
The very real problem is that the Kewen people have almost no silver coins in their hands. Without such a trading medium, and after the iron trade is monopolized by themselves, of course they can only place their hope in fishing and hunting, and use leather to sell goods. The Russians exchanged supplies. Due to the relatively long production cycle of iron tools, one thousand axes are taxed this year. The production of these axesIt takes a long time and they bring no benefit to the Iron Squirrel tribe.
If even the leather trade has to be monopolized by themselves, I am afraid their hunting enthusiasm will not be high.
In fact, Mechasta also realized a truth from the contract, the so-called unconstrained is compliant.
For example, Rurik did not clearly explain whether the newly promoted Kovin blacksmith's payment for repairing iron tools to Russian fishermen was also included in the income from iron smelting. Since it’s not stated 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 people. Their failure is only due to the poor quality of their soldiers and backward weapons and equipment.
Now, they have set foot on the Russian warship, and their weapons and equipment have been greatly improved. In the Iron Squirrel Tribe, all archers are equipped with iron cluster arrows, all marching staffs are equipped with iron spearheads, and all logging axes are turned into top-quality chromium iron. They transitioned from the Stone Age to the Iron Age in an instant.
Just because he believed they were smart, Rurik had to be wary of them.
Rurik estimated that he could not completely prevent the Kovin people from secretly selling the hammered iron tools to Russian fishermen. After all, both parties would definitely have real trading needs.
Anyway, the contract has been finalized, and Rurik’s bottom line is their future tax of two thousand axes per year. If they are really found to be trading privately, the so-called punishment method is actually not bloody, or it can be said to be a kind of soft knife, that is, a punitive tax increase.
As the population increases and production tools are upgraded, their production efficiency can only continue to increase, and more taxes will be collected for this. How to raise taxes reasonably? Then claim that they were exposed for secretly selling iron, and raising taxes is a reasonable punishment.
Of course, since he experienced the battle and personally commanded the soldiers to kill a large number of enemies, the dark and violent side of Rurik's heart has unknowingly emerged.
Although he was not born violent, he has been forced by the times to become a hardline figure.
What if the Iron Squirrel tribe gets lazy and they can't fulfill their tax demands? Then we can only use harsh methods, such as imposing punishments similar to the "Eleven Rules" on the Kewen people, tying up the unlucky ones and then piercing them with thousands of arrows. This harsh method is used to force them to believe that the authority of the master's family cannot be violated. , the assigned tasks must be completed by all means.
Rurik certainly would not show violence before they delayed the date. He did not even tell Mechasta what the "real punishment" was.
He felt that this set of punishment methods that he had buried in his heart for the time being was quite harsh in the style of the "Qin Law". Although the method of being executed when he missed the deadline was harsher, for the servants, this method was currently the simplest and most effective.
Thinking further, Rurik became more and more convinced that the entire tribe was in a wild and harsh environment, facing enemies that were eager to look at him and allies with ulterior motives, and even did not know the enemy.Friends of the residents of Narvik Port, the tribe's situation is too extreme, so the entire tribe also needs to use a more extreme method to overcome all difficulties.
In the final analysis, the greatest danger is still the military threat from foreign enemies.
Coupled with Rurik's ambition, it may be a good idea to arm the Rus tribe into a large military camp and include all the servants in the "big military camp".