Chapter 488: Releasing the Private Trade of Slaves

Although the trading is already underway, Baifeng still feels a headache; for instance, where is it appropriate to settle the thousands of slaves already exchanged? One certainly cannot let them stand in the wind for an entire night.

The people from the Ministry of Revenue are even more sullen all day long, with expressions as if they were dying, yet Baifeng cannot harbor any dissatisfaction toward them, because their Ministry of Revenue has truly been exhausted during this period.

With no other choice, Xiong suggested settling the people in the military camp first, as there is enough open space there; one only needs to set up tents, and if they are in the military camp, everyone can monitor the slaves at any time and maintain their order.

Upon hearing this, Baifeng thought it was not a bad method, to just muddle through these few days first; in any case, it is impossible to keep the slaves in the military camp forever, otherwise what would happen to military training in the future?

The Shaman had not stopped since the afternoon, writing and calculating the whole time; with a worried face, he said, "King, even if we cut the price in half, our current grain reserves in the National Treasury are quite tight, and there isn't much ability to resist disasters left."

After hearing this, Baifeng was also silent for a long time; he truly could not think of a good strategy for the moment, but he thought of another matter: "Shaman, you say, how much grain do our Citizens have in their homes? Can it all cope with a year of disaster?"

The Shaman had never thought about this matter, but he still inferred from the taxes and grain yields of previous years that the grain reserves in every household were very large; only those families that had just started out not long ago did not have much grain in reserve now, only enough to last until the Autumn Harvest.

As for other families, especially the various high-level officials, the grain reserves in their homes were definitely enough for their families to eat for three years; they received salaries from the state and were allocated more arable land, so as time went on, this type of family became increasingly wealthy.

However, Baifeng did not do anything to address this, because this is the inevitability of class development; only by letting more hardworking and smarter people widen the gap in living standards from ordinary people will they have motivation and passion.

At this time, the Shaman tentatively asked: "Should we collect some grain from the Citizens to fill the National Treasury?"

The Shaman was a bit panicked, but if Baifeng really made him take the grain out and hand it over to the National Treasury, he would not have any objections; after all, Baifeng is the greatest in all of Huaxia.

Baifeng shook his head: "This matter is impossible. I want to maintain the credibility of the state; collecting everyone's grain for the National Treasury, although it is a good method, can only solve temporary problems. This kind of thing, as long as it happens once, there will definitely be a second time; it is absolutely not advisable."

The Shaman lowered his head, with a look of relief on his face.

After a moment of silence, Baifeng suddenly exclaimed and said he had a good idea; the Shaman hurriedly raised his head, waiting to hear Baifeng speak.

Baifeng tapped the table and said: "Ordinary people have enough grain in their homes, but they cannot spend it, and our National Treasury is somewhat empty. Since you even thought of collecting grain from ordinary people to trade for slaves, why not skip a step and let ordinary families go purchase the slaves themselves?"

After listening, the Shaman's eyes widened: "This, this is indeed a good method."

Baifeng changed the subject: "Shaman, if I let you buy slaves now, how many would you want to buy? The price is as high as the one offered by the Suiren clan; of course, it can be slightly higher, and the profit would be equivalent to a subsidy for the Ministry of Revenue, which can be distributed to you all."

The Shaman was at a loss for a moment; he did not know how many slaves he wanted to buy, nor what he could use them for if he bought them.

Baifeng saw his distress and said: "You can look at how many your family can support and house. Once the slaves are bought back, you can let them do work, right? Usually cleaning the house, and working for your family during the plowing season, right?"

"Of course, there will be relevant laws issued for this, such as how to punish slaves if they commit crimes, the issue of ownership of slaves—whether they belong to the state or the individual—and whether they can be promoted, right?"

After listening, the Shaman was very clear in his heart; the grain in his home was not a problem, and buying ten or twenty was more than enough, but feeding the slaves would require expense, and another thing was the place to live. Listening to Baifeng's meaning, it was that these slaves would no longer live together in unified arrangements; whoever buys them takes them to their own home to live, solving two problems at once.

The Shaman thought about his house, which was still constantly being expanded; as long as there was no mandatory requirement for how well the slaves must live, his home could definitely house five or six slaves.

Before the Shaman could speak, Baifeng directly had people go and call back all the officials who had already gone home to rest.

Before long, the office was filled with people who were bleary-eyed and shivering; seeing that it was so late and Baifeng had not yet rested, they all felt a bit ashamed.

Baifeng did not care about this and immediately announced to everyone that they could privately purchase slaves, and that individuals would have ownership of the slaves, just like property, which no one could deprive them of. However, to avoid the occurrence of some vicious incidents, Baifeng would also give these slaves some of the most basic human rights; at the very least, they could not be tortured or killed at will, and then you can do whatever you want.

After hearing this, everyone's first reaction was that the National Treasury had no grain, so they scrambled to say that they did not need slaves and could hand over the grain from their own homes to ensure the smooth progress of the trade.

Baifeng was very happy to see that everyone's awareness was so good, but he still explained once why he wanted to do this, and hoped that everyone would actively and reasonably purchase slaves according to their own circumstances.

This batch that had already been sent back was also within the scope of sale, but seeing that everyone was so active, Baifeng directly raised the price and told everyone that this portion would be equivalent to a tax, and those who buy slaves in the future must pay it.

Everyone had no objections, because that bit of cost was painless to them, and Baifeng also clearly told everyone that the extra portion collected would be rewarded to the Ministry of Revenue to commend the Ministry of Revenue for their hard work during this period.