Rurik firmly believed 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 underwent a qualitative 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 treat them as slaves than to continue to treat them as slaves.
All converted into "tax residents" have more economic value.
"Now I want to establish a contract with you. First of all, I must make it clear that the relationship between you and me is still that of master and servant, but you have another identity, taxman."
"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 donate it to me. Now I stipulate that starting from next year, your tribe
Two thousand axes and five hundred manuscript axes must be made for me every year. Do you understand?"
Although Mechasta heard it very clearly and felt Sisi's malice, his body was trembling.
"Sir, your request is actually..."
"What?" Rurik tilted his head, "Do you think my requirements are too high? I saw that your people already know how to smelt and even build stoves. Your people even know how to burn charcoal and use reindeer to do it.
Transporting ore. I originally planned to give you the task of producing five thousand 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 is relatively stable at fifty axes a day. Of course, there was a time when the daily output reached a hundred. This was entirely based on the hard work of the excellent Ross blacksmith and his advance.
A large amount of ore has been hoarded. The Russians have to leave for the time being, and the smelting work for the rest of the time is all the Covin people's own business. Due to the amount of ore transportation, the amount of charcoal fired, and even the use of labor by mature men, several parties have reached a steady state.
, causing the production capacity to enter a steady state.
Rurik knew this, and the orders he put forward were based on his estimation of the production strength of Mechasta's men.
Mechasta's difficult response: "Okay, I'll do that."
"You don't have to work so hard this year." Rurik waved his hand and said, "We have an agreement 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, you must pay this year
The tribute is a thousand axes! From the summer solstice to when we come back in September, you have more than two months to make them. Oh, or you are not paying tribute, but paying taxes. You actually only have to pay a thousand axes.
For the tax on axes, if you make more, I will exchange them with you in oats and flax.”
Upon hearing 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! The axes you over-produced can only be sold 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 you shouldn't sell without authorization,
, it’s okay to sell it to us Rus people, but if I sell it to other tribes, even the Balmoks, I will be punished if I find out.
I think you don't need silver coins very much, you need high-quality grains and cloth more. So in our transactions, 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 will not listen to any reasons why you cannot complete the task. Those are all excuses. If you really cannot complete the task, you will also be punished.
Listen! Don't betray my trust in you. You must also understand that your son and daughter are both under my control."
Rurik's decision was made every step of the way. Mechasta was glad that he could lead his people to produce more things in exchange for more consumer goods, making everyone's lives better. Now the problem becomes, Ang
If you slack 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 pure
It's my charity, and you have to pay the price. My requirements for you are not high, you even have the ability to earn private wealth, and I have no intention of robbing your private property anymore."
Mechasta nodded: "I think I still have to pay a further price."
"That's right! If there is a war and an enemy attacks us Russians, you Covin people must organize an army to fight alongside us. In terms of fighting, I am absolutely fair. If your people make military exploits, they will get the same reward as the Russians.
The warriors are rewarded exactly the same.”
"Ah? This..."
"What? Are you surprised?"
"We..." Mechasta's mind was very confused for a moment. He thought the Russians were harsh for a while, and then thought they were reasonable. Now they have become 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 indicate: "I fully agree with your decision, and I will get things done."
"Get up!" Rurik guessed that the other party still had many questions, and any questions were meaningless now. "You just do what I tell you, but I will no longer provide you with a lot of free food, and you will do it on your own.
Go get food, such as hunting or fishing. The rivers in the north have a lot of fish, and you can get it yourself. If the food is not enough, don’t worry, I will organize fishing boats to transport the fish to you, and you can smelt it.
Exchange me for iron items, ore, or leather. Remember! Only iron items, if you sell them to outsiders privately, you will be punished by me, and you will bear all the consequences."
Mechasta had thought of this a long time ago. He knew that he could not eat a lot of high-quality food forever. He did not have much pressure to lead his people back to the old tradition of hunting and fishing. Besides, there were a lot of wild beasts in the area, and when
After the tribesmen began to use better arrows, their hunting efficiency greatly improved.
However, another problem is that if manpower is allocated for hunting, the manpower for smelting iron will be reduced. Of course, women can also go hunting. Most women are archers, but as a leader, they really cannot be overly concerned about getting food.
The responsibilities should be left to the women of the tribe. I am afraid that it would be most appropriate to forge iron and mine ore in exchange for the food provided by Rurik.
In any case, Mechasta knew that he could only agree with it.
In this way, Rurik added some terms and made a written contract on the wooden board in Roman letters that Mechasta could not understand.
The two parties signed a contract, so that the defeated Iron Squirrel tribe was 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 Rus tribe. Rurik dreams of owning his own large iron factory. This dream seems to be
To be implemented in Elon-Olava Fort, the Kovin people who made a living from fishing and hunting turned into "steel-making workers", and because the waterwheel was put into use, Rurik believed in their production capabilities.
Rurik's return is approaching, what does it mean for Elon-Olava Castle? It may be a new beginning.
Because of the contract, Rurik planned to transport most of the iron produced before the summer solstice back to Roseburg.
Also on the cargo list is a large amount of roughly tanned beast leather.
Forged ferrochromium tools are better than ordinary hardened wrought iron tools, and even comparable to mild steel tools. Rurik hopes to make up for his financial expenses by selling all of them.
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 ferret skin.
Nowadays, finely processed ironware has become extremely profitable, and its value has far exceeded that of leather.
So, is there much value in the Russians' efforts to capture wild beasts and skin them?
I'm afraid its commercial value has been weakened, but leather is not an ordinary commodity. In areas lacking flax, cotton cultivation and even trade, leather is the only clothing material for local people.
The leather trade is still the economic backbone of the Ross tribe, and now it may be the dawn of the so-called multi-faceted flowering.
Rurik was already counting the goods to be brought back. As the statistics went deeper, the scale really surprised him.
For example, the polar bear skin was once very precious. It was cherished because killing a polar bear always risked one's life. Hunting a polar bear was no less than a life-and-death struggle between two warriors.
However, with the use of crossbows, the efficiency of hunting polar bears has been greatly improved.
As the master, Rurik received a large number of offerings. There were as many as eighty polar bear skins and as many as fifty brown bear skins.
And this is just bear skin. Among all leathers, the most abundant is actually the long-legged snowshoe hare.
Rurik noticed early on that it was difficult to capture and raise those long-legged and alert snowshoe hares. The only ones that could really be raised were cave rabbits, but their activity areas needed a warmer south. For example, New Ross
In the area where the fort is located, there are many short-legged cave rabbits. They are easier to tame after being captured. They are the so-called domestic rabbits.
Snowshoe hares were 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.
Not only do the number of snowshoe pelts exceed 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, but in the past everyone hunted here in winter. Under those circumstances, it was quite difficult to catch the snow hare, which was all white.
However, the Ross fleet arrived at its destination in May. Youdao arrived early rather than arriving by chance. Ross hunters and Kewen hunters saw extremely bold snowshoe rabbits with white fur every day when they were doing large-scale logging.
They are jumping around repeatedly around me. They are so bold and provocative. How can 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 area, 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 the price of most supplies has doubled. In this way, a snow rabbit skin
The price can also reach one silver coin.
The already lively dock has become even more lively now, with more and more people stepping onto the boardwalk. As large cargo ships have docked at the port, the loading of goods has finally begun.
For those Russian warriors who followed Rurik, the "war chief", who fought in the north, their journey of hunting, logging and construction was finally coming to an end. At first, most of the warriors had the urge to fight an unknown enemy, but life was very difficult.
It's getting boring soon. Only hunting and eating can make everyone happy.
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 at the port.
They became porters and began to load Rurik's loot to the ship. Each of them had his own small linen bag hanging on his belt, which was full of tinkling silver coins. This was the last two of them.
Compensation for months of work.
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 ironware after the summer solstice is not allowed to be sold privately to Russian fishermen. The only buyer is Rurik himself. Once the illegal transaction is discovered, Mechasta threatens to take action against the violation.
The offender took drastic measures, that is, cutting off his hands as a punishment.
Issuing this violent and harsh order was really his helpless move. He didn't know what Rurik's punishment was. Rurik didn't explain clearly. This unknown fear continued to ferment, making Mechas
Ta believed in the boy Rurik, who was already willing to take extreme measures to punish him, as if he had ordered the execution of Voima Kashad.
But Mechasta noticed many operational 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 trade of ironware. The child obviously wanted to monopolize all the ironware. On the other hand, there were no serious restrictions on transactions other than the ironware trade.
Yes, Rurik left a backdoor for these Coven people in the very important leather trade.
Mechasta knew that Rurik encouraged his people to sell 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 foundation of the Kovin tribes is based on the leather trade. In the Oulu River Basin, the Kovin people completely regard squirrel skins as hard currency. Squirrel skins are a special form of currency in ancient Finland.
, but everything of value can be measured by squirrel skin. Rurik must first plunder crazily from them, and he also knows that he cannot 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 Kovin people have almost no silver coins in their hands. Without such a trading medium, and the iron trade has been monopolized by themselves, of course they can only hope to fish and hunt, and use leather to exchange materials with the Russians.
The production cycle of iron tools is relatively long, and one thousand axes are part of this year's tax. The production of these axes takes a long time, and they cannot bring benefits to the Iron Squirrel Tribe.
If even the leather trade had to be monopolized by themselves, I'm afraid their hunting enthusiasm would be low.
In fact, Mechasta also realized a truth from the contract, the so-called unconstrained is compliant.
For example, Rurik did not clearly state whether the reward for the newly promoted Kovin blacksmith to repair the iron tools for the Russian fishermen was also included in the income from iron smelting. Since it was not stated clearly, it did not count!
In Rurik's eyes, he was willing to believe that the Kovin people as a whole were simple, and he was also willing to believe that the Kovin people were never stupid people. Their failure was simply due to the poor quality of their soldiers and their backward weapons and equipment.
Now, they have set foot on the Russian warship, and the level of weapons and equipment has been greatly improved. In the Iron Squirrel Tribe, all the archers have been equipped with iron cluster arrows, all the marching staffs are equipped with iron spearheads, and the logging axes have all become
into top-quality ferrochrome. 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 hammered iron tools to Russian fishermen. After all, both parties would definitely have real trading needs.
Anyway, the contract has been confirmed, and Rurik's psychological 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 not actually bloody, or it can be said to be a soft knife to cut flesh.
That is, punitive tax increases.
With the increase in population and the upgrading of production tools, their production efficiency can only continue to increase, and more taxes will be collected. How to increase taxes reasonably? Then claim that they are secretly selling iron tools and be exposed, 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 also 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 becomes lazy and they are unable to fulfill their tax requirements? Then the only option is to adopt harsh measures, such as imposing "eleven-law" punishments on the Kovin people, and tying up the unlucky ones and then piercing them with thousands of arrows.
He used this harsh method to force them to believe that the authority of the master's family could not be violated, and the assigned tasks must be completed by all means.
Of course, Rurik would not show violence until they had 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 the time was missed was harsher, for 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. They had to face covetous enemies, allies with ulterior motives, and even the residents of Narvik Port who did not know their enemies or friends. The tribe's situation
It's too extreme, so the entire tribe needs to use a more extreme method to overcome all difficulties.
Ultimately, the greatest danger is still the military threat from foreign enemies.
Coupled with Rurik's ambition, it might be a good idea to arm the Rus tribe into a large military camp and include all the servants in the "big military camp".