Chapter 1563, population problems to be faced in the future
At the entrance of the slave shop of the Black Sea Trading Company in the slave market, Emperor Hongzhi, Zhang Mao, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Liu Jin and others looked at old Li Tou and Li Xi who came out of the slave shop, and then looked at the three newcomers following them.
The slave he bought immediately started laughing.
"As expected, I came here to buy slaves. I bought three slaves at once. This old man is really strong."
Zhang Mao said teasingly.
"It's good now. If you have three concubines, you can have grandchildren."
Liu Jin also followed suit.
"Nowadays, women in the Ming Dynasty rarely serve as concubines. If they want to take concubines, they usually take Koreans or Japanese as concubines, or they buy slaves to use as concubines."
Li Dongyang stroked his beard and said.
"Yes, life is better now. Even ordinary people don't want their daughters to be given to others. Even for rich and powerful families, it is not easy for them to take a Ming Dynasty girl as a concubine.
.”
Liu Jian also followed this idea. His son wanted to take a concubine, but the other party was just an ordinary people's family. He thought it would go smoothly, but it turned out to be a disaster.
Now everyone's living standards have improved, and every household no longer has to worry about food.
Although there are many children in the family, each one is more valuable.
In the past, many children from poor families would give their daughters to rich families to work as maids or servants because they did not have enough food to eat or had too many children.
Not only can I exchange some money to support other children, but I can also live in a wealthy family, at least I don't have to worry about starving to death.
It sounds like it's pretty good.
But the real side is how much sadness and helplessness there is.
As long as they can afford it and have enough to eat, no one is willing to give their own flesh and blood to be a maid or a current person.
Because once the money is collected, this daughter will no longer belong to your family, but to the landlord's family, a wealthy family, and she will also be the lowest maid and servant.
They usually work like cows and horses, and warm the owner's bed in winter. When the owner gets angry, he is the target of his vent, and he has no status at all.
Even if you are lucky enough to give birth to a son for your master, the son's status is still very low. Unless the master's wife has no son, she can stand up, otherwise she will never be able to stand up again and will always be a humble slave.
Even if you are beaten to death, your parents can't say a word. You can't even go home to see your parents during the holidays. You have completely severed ties with your parents.
This is the most tragic thing. Many wealthy families will keep many such maids and servants. They are bought back to the house at a very young age and raised as maids and slaves to serve their masters.
The second is to be a concubine. The prerequisite is that you must be beautiful and a wealthy family likes you, then you can be a concubine.
Being a concubine is not that easy. Basically, she has to be bullied and bossed around by the eldest lady. The children she gives birth to are also bastards and are not even qualified to inherit the family business.
Of course, if you can give birth to a son, your life in your later years is still guaranteed. If you can't even give birth to a son, your life will be even more miserable.
These are all from the old Ming Dynasty.
It’s different now. With the development of capitalism and colonialism, and with the Ming Dynasty’s large-scale expansion and immigration, the dividends of the times have spread to everyone from top to bottom.
Even the poorest people are still willing to work and earn dozens of taels of silver a year. Not only can they support their families, they can also build big houses and live a prosperous life.
Life.
Naturally, the girls in this family are more valuable. Naturally, they will no longer be sold to others as maids. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty has also strictly prohibited trafficking. It is also a crime to abduct the people of the Ming Dynasty and sell their own children. They will be punished by the government.
In exile.
As for being a concubine, that is becoming less and less common.
Now that you don't have to worry about food, drink or clothing, who will be your concubine?
Wouldn't it be better to marry someone from the Ming Dynasty and be the master of your own household?
As a result, it has become difficult for the powerful children of the court to take concubines. Very few people are willing to be concubines, not to mention that concubines are now popular in Korea, Japan and those bought slaves.
How can the people of Ming Dynasty be like them?
"Times have changed~"
"But the future will continue to change."
"So many women from all over the world flowing into our Ming Dynasty will bring us many new problems."
Liu Jin looked at the busy slave markets on both sides and seemed to see countless newborn babies being born.
In ancient times, the greatest value of a woman was to reproduce offspring, and the people of the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to inheritance. Like Lao Li Tou who just passed by, it was not that he did not have grandchildren in his family.
He had two grandsons, but he still felt they were too few, so he came here again to buy slaves to serve as his son's concubines and continue to give birth to more grandsons.
This kind of thinking is deeply rooted in Ming Dynasty and is difficult to change at all.
This is the wisdom that the Chinese nation has gained through ups and downs over thousands of years. It is precisely because of the emphasis on inheritance and incense that the descendants of the Yan and Huang Dynasties have been able to go through the ups and downs of thousands of years.
Of course, if you want to have children, you need women. The more women you have, the more children you will have.
Nowadays, a large number of slaves flow into the Ming Dynasty every year. It can be predicted that the population of the Ming Dynasty will show explosive growth in the future.
Just look at the old Wangtou and you will know that he gave birth to several sons, and Wang Zhengyuan raised them. But as for Wang Zhengyuan, he had more than 20 children, big and small. Now the medical technology of Ming Dynasty has been greatly improved, and it is taught through newspapers.
Learned a lot of correct parenting knowledge.
These can greatly improve the survival rate and reduce the premature death rate, which means that the population of Ming Dynasty will continue to grow explosively.
"New question?"
"What new problem?"
Emperor Hongzhi heard this and asked quickly.
He is most concerned about these things. As a good emperor, he is most afraid of hearing about any problems.
"As for the problem of population growth, the importation of a large number of women into our country will definitely increase the fertility rate in our country. In the future, our population will grow rapidly."
"Significant population growth will inevitably bring about other related problems, such as education. The current scale of education is definitely not enough. In the future, more schools will be built to meet the needs of more children."
"Another example is medical care. The growth and outbreak of a large population will definitely require more doctors. At the same time, women who come to Ming Dynasty from all over the world are also very likely to bring various diseases from all over the world. These will affect our Ming Dynasty.
Create new challenges.”
"The other thing is that the children born here are usually black-eyed and black-haired in Ming Dynasty, but after mixed blood, many of them are blond and blue-eyed, and look like us Ming people."
"How should our Ming Dynasty treat these children? Whether they also have the same rights needs to be carefully considered and treated."
"When these women from all over the world become mothers, they will inevitably bring the culture and religion of their original nations to our Ming Dynasty, and they will form certain heroes for these children, which will in turn have a negative impact on our Ming Dynasty culture.
Religion etc. have a certain degree of impact and influence.”
Liu Jin told what he saw in one breath.
After all, the growth of a large population will bring huge pressure on medical care, education, housing, etc. Of course, population is also wealth, and the more people there are, the more wealth will be created.
The second issue is how to treat these mixed-race descendants. This is something that Ming Dynasty rarely experienced before, but now it is suddenly placed in front of Ming people.
"More people is a good thing. What are you afraid of? Just build more schools. Just build them~"
Zhang Mao looked indifferent.
"As for the children born of mixed blood, they are also the descendants of our Ming people, so they should be treated equally. Although there are some differences in appearance, they are also the descendants of our Ming people, and they are also influenced by our Chinese civilization. How can we treat them differently?
.”
Li Dongyang also nodded. In their opinion, these things are very simple and there are not too many problems.
Of course, this is also a characteristic of the Ming Dynasty in this era.
The strength of Ming Dynasty created confident Ming Dynasty people.
However, Liu Jin saw many problems in the future. With the explosive growth of population, there will be many problems in the future.
Not to mention anything else, as far as the Hongzhi Emperor's family is concerned, this classmate Zhu Houzhao is a diligent cow, sowing every day and becoming a father every month. Many of them are born to women from minority tribes.
If the throne of the Ming Dynasty has to be passed on to the children of women from these minority tribes in the future, and a blond and blue-eyed man sits on the throne of the Ming Dynasty, it is estimated that it will definitely cause some problems.
Even if this is a descendant of Zhu Houzhao, a bloodline of the Ming Dynasty royal family, and even if the other person is a descendant of Yan and Huang at heart, if the difference in appearance is too big, it will definitely cause some turmoil.
Of course, this possibility is very small.
The queen will definitely be a pure descendant of Yan and Huang, and the child she gives birth to will be the legitimate son and legitimate heir, but who can be sure about the affairs of the palace, anything can happen.
"That's right. They are all descendants of our Ming people and descendants of our Yan and Huang people."
Emperor Hongzhi also nodded in agreement. Zhu Houzhao had several concubines from minority tribes who came from beauty contests in the Western Regions and Nanyun Province. Some of the children he gave birth to did not look like Ming Han people, but Emperor Hongzhi was still very
Love.
"Well, it seems that I don't have to worry about racial discrimination in the future."
Liu Jin had nothing to say. This kind of problem was a big problem in later European and American countries, but now it seems that there is no need to worry about Ming Dynasty, as long as it is his own descendants, no matter what he looks like