Otto informed his son that he had received 30,000 silver coins as an offering, and told him more bluntly: "From now on, the public wealth of the priests will be managed by the chief. Now, the high priest still has close to 20,000 silver coins.
, as well as some gold coins and gems. I will take care of them now. If you take over my post in the future, you will take care of them."
"Ah?! That's their money. I..." Rurik's mind was a little confused. He felt that he needed to make a statement, that is, he obeyed Vilia. Even if the priests took some measures, he did not covet them.
money.
But this incident obviously did not allow Rick to gain fame and reputation.
Otto covered Rurik's little head with his big hand: "Let me tell you, these are all orders from the high priest. The existing female priests are unreliable! My child, you need to train your own priestess, and you need to manage the priests on their behalf.
Money. To prevent the priests from using their brains, we must manage the money for them. I think you are so smart, you should understand."
Rurik, does he understand? Of course he does.
The big leader has secular public power, and the high priest has the ability to control thoughts. In this time and space, the discord between these two forces in many countries is a major cause of civil strife.
To eliminate the possibility of this chaos, the great leader must firmly control the priests. Now Rurik understood from his father's words that the high priest Vilia, who had almost died, did what he did when his oil was exhausted.
A major decision will be made. The so-called priest group will become a vassal of the big leader.
There was only one word that came to Rurik's mind - centralization.
Since he will have the right to control the finances of the priests as the big leader in the future, why doesn’t the big leader control more? By controlling money and food, you can control a large population. In this still barbaric era, the Ross tribe should say goodbye.
The tribal era has come. When the great leader is upgraded to a monarch, the Ross tribe should be upgraded to a kingdom.
Here comes the problem, since it must be upgraded to a kingdom, it should have a treasury.
But now he is not the leader, let alone the king of the kingdom.
Facing his father, Rurik felt that he needed to make a major suggestion to his father on the use of money that would benefit the tribal residents, or in other words, an innovation.
Rurik's little face became serious.
"dad."
"I am here."
"About the priests' money, and your money. You mean, the money that you and I can control in our family already amounts to 70,000 silver coins. It's really a huge sum of money."
"Hehe." Otto continued to rub his son's little head, "Sooner or later it will be your money."
"Is that true? But..." Rurik raised his head and said seriously: "But the priest's money is not my money."
"That's true, but you can use it."
Rurik shook his head: "Even so, it is still not my money. Now, Dad, I just want to make one thing clear. If it is not my money, I can use it. In what name should I use it?
?Is it used as a big leader, or something else?"
For a while, Otto couldn't figure out his son's intentions.
Rurik simply made his attitude clear: "I think we need a great money box. This box contains a large amount of treasures. These treasures belong to our Ross tribe and are the wealth owned by all tribesmen. But the right to use it lies with
In the hands of the great leader."
"Huh? Your idea is really strange." Otto shook his head.
"Strange? In the past, the priests had a public money box. The wealth belonged to all priests and the right to use it was in the hands of the high priest. I think this system is okay and should be extended to the entire tribe. In my opinion, the priests
The existing 20,000 silver coins and other belongings are all counted as belongings to our tribe's large money box. With this money, we can do many things."
Otto still feels a little strange: "Go on, what should you do?"
"Well, for example, we can repair roads and build houses for poor tribesmen. We can use this money to improve the lives of our tribesmen."
"Are you sure you want to do this? Whether they are poor or rich is their own business. Are you going to care about the poor? They have hands and feet, so they can naturally go fishing and fight. Will they still be poor if they do these things?
?”
The words came out of my father's mouth. He is the leader of the tribe!
Rurik felt a little uncomfortable.
Of course, the young and strong warriors of the tribe can carry axes to rob enemy tribes to gain wealth, or they can float on the sea and catch fish. Of course, a healthy young man has the ability to support himself and his family, but once they grow old,
Now, it is impossible to maintain the living conditions that we once had.
Especially those warriors. If they die in battle, their wives and children will almost lose their source of income.
Rurik had thought of many things. For example, some women of the tribe would bury their husbands who died in battle. There might be economic reasons. A woman who loses her husband would have an extremely difficult life. Death is probably a kind of death.
relief.
He asked: "Dad, aren't the weak ones in our tribe worthy of your attention?"
"them?"
"For example, some older people, or children who have lost their father?"
Otto had never thought about this carefully, so he casually said: "Everyone's fate is destined. Some people are born noble, and some people are born unfortunate. For example, you are the happiest person."
"So, Dad, can you let them die early? Or wait for death in the days of hunger and fullness?"
Otto was startled and quickly replied: "No, I don't mean that."
"But you did not make some decisions. You are the big leader, but there are still many people in our tribe who live in the most dilapidated houses and live on limited food. Now you still support our execution for at least five years.
The ten-year rule of dividing the spoils of war has been changed. Those who did not participate in the war or the tribute voyage will not receive much money or food from their families. This is not right."
Otto was unhappy after being criticized by his son. However, he was able to question his decision, which showed that the child definitely had other ideas.
Regarding changing the tribe's dividend model, Otto has his own reason: "Rurik, our Roseburg is in a bitter cold place, and only the strongest can survive. Our tribe needs new heroes and brave ones. Those who are weak are
When you are about to die, all power can only be enjoyed by the strong. You are a smart boy, I think you can understand."
"So, those weak people should die early?" Rurik complained from his soul.
Otto was not to be outdone: "This is the foundation of our strength. Only the strongest group of people can survive, and those who can participate in the battle are also the strongest. If we were weak, we would have perished long ago. Remember
That grove? Some children are born weak, and they are abandoned when they are born. Rurik, the weak do not deserve to live. Even if they are lucky enough to survive, they will die of disease at a young age."
Natural selection and survival of the fittest? It’s really cruel.
Rurik understood what his father meant. Based on this barbaric era, the material resources of Roseburg should have only been able to support a group of the strongest people to survive. But the tribe was still a behemoth of four thousand people.
Because of the tribe's long-standing "extensive dividend system", people who find it difficult to walk can still get a share of the surviving fruits of the tribute voyage.
Times have changed. What Rurik has learned in the past few months is the serious wealth inequality that existed in the tribe. Now the situation has become even worse. For example, his buddy Fisk, this guy's father died,
This also prevented the family from participating in the war, let alone sailing to Novgorod. The tribe made huge profits from the two major operations this year, but this obviously has nothing to do with the Fisk family.
There are many such families and tribes. If he had not accepted his own relief, Rurik dared to say that Fisk would most likely not have survived to adulthood.
Rurik did not agree with his father Otto's "Social Darwin" at all. Based on his own thoughts, he would never agree with this concept.
If the tribe's wealth and supplies are scarce, the only way for the tribe to remain strong is to sacrifice the weak and the strong to take all.
Now, is the Ross tribe really short of supplies? Of course not!
"Dad, I still don't agree with what you say." Rurik said firmly, "I want to help the weak in the tribe. I think that as a big leader, I have reason to help them. No matter what, they are our tribe. Even if they
Even if they are vulnerable, we must also help them."
"I heard that you treat your one hundred and fifty men to dinner every day. Do you think this is right?"
Rurik nodded deeply: "Some of them have fathers who died unexpectedly or in battle. I cannot bear to let them go hungry! I will always give them food so that they can be used by me when they grow up."
"But this requires too much money!"
"Dad, do you still doubt my ability to make money? I pay a sum of money to support the poor, and I still have the confidence to make more and more money."
Fascinated by this soul question, Otto looked at the transparent cup on the table and smiled innocently.
Rurik continued: "Dad, as far as I know, almost everyone in the tribe believes that I am a child blessed by Odin. My identity is noble. This is the identity given to me by Odin and also given to me by you.
I have a noble status, but I am not here to enjoy the blessings. My mission is to lead our tribe to prosperity. I want to make the strong stronger, the weak able to have food and clothing, and I want the foreigners to surrender.
us."
For a moment, Otto thought of what his son had said about his attitude many years ago, when he had just learned to speak. Looking back on those years, the shock was still in his mind.
"So, you will spend a lot of money to help those poor people?"
"Yes!" Rurik said firmly: "We need a big money box, which belongs to all the people of our Ross tribe. In my opinion, in the future, we will allocate part of the tributes from our victory in battles and tribute voyages.
Put it into this big money box. The money in the big money box is to help the poor tribesmen."
Otto slapped his forehead: "Hey! Isn't this the same as before?"
"It's very different! This money is controlled by the big leader. Who to fund and how to fund it are also arranged by the big leader. Not only that, the big leader can use this money to hire craftsmen from his own tribe and foreigners to build new houses.
, build a dock, or simply build a big ship. I feel that the big leader has many obligations to the tribe, not only to lead the tribe to victory in the war, but also to ensure that no tribe member freezes to death or starves to death."
Rurik consciously said something grand, hoping that Otto would be moved.
The reality is that Otto, the current leader of the Ross tribe, was not very moved by his son's great ambition.
Otto felt that, after all, his son still planned to take action personally to support the poorest and weakest people in the tribe. As for the "big money box", wasn't that his son's money? If he changed his name, he would still take on the new responsibility.
Money from the son of a great leader.
Because Otto really couldn't understand his son's philosophy. He couldn't decide whether his son's philosophy was great and noble, or whether it was based entirely on maximizing his own interests, or both.
Big leader? Being a big leader is to enjoy the great feeling of having power, which can also bring tangible economic benefits. Only when people have money and power, the tribesmen will hold a "competition", in which the strongest will fight through a duel.
, fighting to death for this noble status.
As for how much obligation the big leader needs to fulfill to the clansmen.
Otto felt that he was commanding the tribe to win the war, leading the tribe to open up a new living space, and even finding partners for the young boys of the tribe. Aren't these great and wise decisions? Did the former leaders have their own wise and great achievements?
?!
No! Those seniors were basically just indulging in their own enjoyment and were masters of fighting, nothing more.
Taking this opportunity, Otto listed his wise actions.
What I got in return was my son shaking his head. Just one sentence - not enough!
Because Rurik's thoughts are still oriental.
In the East, the army is a public weapon of the state, and the granary is also a public weapon of the state.
The power to live comes from heaven. This so-called heaven is a "highest level of great existence". What the monarch has is the "mandate of heaven", which is a kind of authorization from the great existence.
The monarch has the right to collect taxes from his subjects and place them in the treasury. This treasury is more often referred to as a large granary.
The subjects must respect the monarch as they respect their father. The monarch is even more obliged to care for his subjects as a father cares for his children.
The monarch cannot waste national funds for no reason. When his subjects encounter disasters and famines, they must open warehouses and release grain to help the people.
In this way, the monarch and his subjects have a relationship similar to that of a family.
Rurik, he appreciates this kind of relationship model more.
Because what he saw in the ninth century West, especially this remote Roseburg, was a barbaric place.
After careful consideration, the strong men of the tribe decided from now on not to share the war dividends with the poor and weak people of the tribe.
A group of people who were plundered or simply bought joined the tribe, and the demographic composition of the tribe was quietly changing.
The tribal society that once existed is undergoing rapid and irreversible transformation.
Is the tribal society in Roseburg really becoming more advanced as it changes?