New Shun 1730

The tax farming system is of course the most hated taxation method by the people. Lavoisier, who was called the "Newton of Chemistry" during the French Revolution, died because of tax farming. Although Marat instigated revenge behind the scenes, Lavoisier's contracting of salt tax itself was the root cause.

But it is obvious that Kang Budai and others did not want to hear this, and gradually led the topic elsewhere.

The shipbuilding craftsmen who finally finished work came to a low-level tavern nearby for this free evening drink.

After a few glasses of wine, under Kang Budai's tempting questions, they naturally talked about the topic of the past being good and the present being bad.

After asking why the present is not as good as before, the shipwright and carpenter drank two glasses of potato liquor imported from the small country of Holy Ra, and muttered a long string of words.

The translator listened carefully. The other party spoke for about two or three minutes. In the end, the translator frowned, scratched his head, and summarized the conversation into a few simple words.

"People's hearts are not as they used to be, and the world is going downhill."

Kang Budai couldn't help laughing at these eight short words, and asked, "What did your ancestors do?"

"My father was a shipbuilder and carpenter."

"Oh, the son inherited his father's business."

"Yes, those of us who do crafts all inherit our father's business. I heard my father talk about the old days, and I also experienced it when I was a child. In short, it was good before, but it's not good now. My father used to be a member of the Shipbuilders and Carpenters Guild. At that time... Hey, at that time, joining the Shipbuilders and Carpenters Guild meant being a respectable person. People respected you and called you a carpenter, and the guild could also resist competition from outsiders and us."

Speaking of the guild that was gradually disintegrating, Kang Budai suddenly became excited.

Because Liu Yu had talked to them about some things, such as the progress of the times, the development of industry and commerce, and the disintegration of the guild, these were not subject to human will.

From a macro perspective, it can be summarized as a simple sentence: "It is the inevitability of the progress of the times, the evidence of the development of industry and commerce, and the manifestation of industry and commerce breaking free from the shackles."

But from a micro perspective to the individual, it is full of pain at the turn of the old and new eras.

The past was good, and the present is not good. This is exactly the topic direction that Kang Budai is looking for!

The shipwright carpenter who drank a few glasses of wine, with a kind of loss after drinking, lamented the glory of the past.

"At that time, the apprentices did not ask for a penny, and they followed the master to learn the craft honestly. They had to treat the master like a father. Not only did they not ask for a penny, but they also had to buy some tobacco or wine for the master from time to time. What kind of warmth was that? The master also treated the apprentice like his son. Although it was strict, it was also for their good."

"At that time, the relationship between people was full of warmth. Master and apprentice, father and son."

"At that time, if you want to become an apprentice and join the shipwright carpenter guild, you can't do it without more than ten years of apprenticeship."

"When my father became a master and applied to join the guild, he had to take the exam. What?"

"He had to dismantle the deck of an old ship and install a new one."

"He had to build a capstan installed on the bow or stern by himself and be able to use it."

"He had to build a main mast, a gaff mast, and a rudder."

"At that time, joining the Shipwrights and Carpenters Guild meant people's respect and admiration, and being a craftsman and having skills."

"But what about now?"

"Now, the water-powered sawmill has a group of young boys to saw the ship planks. They have no carpentry skills at all. If it were back then, none of them could pass the guild's assessment, let alone build a main mast and a rudder. Rudders, even the simplest thing of dismantling decks, they can't do it well. "

"Masts began to be mass-produced, and every ship looked exactly the same. In the past, building a ship was like the children of us carpenters, each one was different and full of the hard work of craftsmen. "

"Now, shipbuilding is like an old sow giving birth to piglets, one after another."

"Rudders, masts, capstans... are all made by different people. How can these people be called carpenters? Where are the original skills? At most, they are helmsmen, mast workers, or deck workers. "

"In the past, our shipbuilders' guild dared to point at the noses of those ship owners and scold them, and they had to pay compensation. Smiley face. "

"What about now? What are we? With a little salary, people no longer respect us. Those apprentices also start to ask for wages and don't treat us like fathers. "

"We have changed from respected craftsmen and carpenters to a group of hired workers who have nothing and can only rely on working for others. "

"People no longer respect craftsmanship, but only look at whether you have money. "

"I think people's hearts are not as good as they used to be, and the world is going downhill. If we continue like this, we will go to hell sooner or later. People no longer have the morality of the past. "

He is a shipbuilder and carpenter, but his words have attracted the sighs of those who are drinking next to him and from different industries.

The voice is not small. The appearance of several Chinese in this tavern has attracted many people's attention. The sighs of the shipbuilder and carpenter are heard by many people and sighed in their hearts.

Those people are not shipbuilders and carpenters, but they can really empathize and resonate with each other.

There are many handicraft guilds in the Netherlands, covering almost all aspects of Dutch industry and commerce. Many people who drink in these taverns are members of a guild, or have been members of a guild.

Dashun had the so-called three religions and nine classes, the upper nine classes, and the lower nine classes. The guilds in the Netherlands were also divided into upper guilds and lower guilds.

The seven guilds in the upper level, such as the Lawyers' Guild, the Bankers' Guild, the Dyeing Guild, the Doctors' and Pharmacists' Guild, etc., have basically nothing to do with the people in this tavern. People who can be members of the upper seven guilds cannot go to this kind of tavern to drink.

There are 16 industrial guilds in the lower level, which are further divided into many industries, which are closely related to the Dutch handicraft industry.

Butchers, bakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, stonemasons, locksmiths... and so on, all have their own guild organizations.

As the times go forward, especially in the Netherlands where industrial and commercial development started very early, the ancient system of guilds is slowly dying out. This feeling makes these small handicraftsmen feel panic, despair, and most importantly, the depreciation of their self-worth.

Several people next to them also sighed a few times, saying similar things.

In Kang Budai's heart, he used four more refined words to summarize their sighs.

"The collapse of rituals and the destruction of music!"

This is too familiar, so he asked the translator to shout that he would buy the wine here tonight.

The people in the tavern are all kinds of people, all of them are low-class people. Even people of the third class will not come to such a place, and people of the fifth class cannot afford to come here. Basically, the people gathered here are people of the fourth class in the Netherlands.

There are cheap prostitutes, craftsmen, boatmen, sailors, small businessmen, small traders, and handicraftsmen.

Along with the bold words of inviting wine, there are cheers. After a few glasses of cheap potato liquor, these people who originally came to complain after drinking all gathered together and continued to talk about the topic of the boatman and carpenter.

At this moment, these people of different professions found a class resonance - the pain of the handicraftsmen of the old era and the beneficiaries of the old feudal guilds under the impact of the new era.

These people have a common characteristic, that is, they are easily excited about vague things and feel bored with the specific truth.

Just like the later generations talking about history, vague and slogan-like, such as those who offend the powerful Han will be punished even if they are far away, one person will destroy the country under the great Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty has an 80% chance of winning foreign wars, and the emperor guards the country and the king dies for the country... People will get excited.

As for the reform of the military service system, the tax system, the development of productivity, the abolition of the peak of the feudal monarchy, etc., few people responded.

The Dutch were the same at this time.

It should be vague and not specific; it should be emotional and not rational.

The Dutch people did not like and had no interest in talking about the defeat of commercial capital by industrial capital, the progress of productivity and population, the market and raw materials.

But if we talk about the infinite glory of the past, the beauty of the past and the ugliness of the present, the people in the tavern suddenly fell into a kind of psychedelic recollection.

A member of the brewing guild on the side, holding up the glass of inferior and cheap potato liquor, his voice began to choke.

"In the past, our winemaking guild was united in the local area, and outside wine could not be sold in. At that time, if anyone did not join the guild, and if anyone wanted to lower the price privately, the guild people would smash his winemaking workshop to pieces."

"But now? The regent oligarchs control the business and bring in outside wine. What can we do?"

"In the past, as long as it was related to wine, nothing could be done without the nod of our guild. But now, the guild's words are no different from farts."

"Try these wines, where is the taste of the past? These low-quality potato liquors are not wine at all. When our guild existed, we used grains and grapes to make wine, which was the traditional taste. But now, these people use the cheapest potatoes to make wine, completely ruining all the good things."

A few sighs, and a person in the distance threw the quilt in his hand to the ground.

"I used to be a potter, my hometown is Delft. When my father was alive, your Chinese pottery came to Rotterdam, and our guild was directly disbanded."

"We couldn't make such good pottery, so the guild organized us to go to the city government to complain, but the regent of the city was a shareholder of the East India Company, telling us that this is business! Free business."

"In the past, the guilds were united and organized to protest. But what about that time? Someone violated the guild's decision, chose to withdraw from the guild, and imitated Chinese pottery."

"We can't make mid-to-high-end pottery, and we can't compete with Chinese pottery. But what about low-end pottery?"

"For low-end pottery, those big businessmen who eat people and drink blood don't give us a chance. Someone imitated low-end purple clay pottery, and someone immediately invested and opened a factory."

"People there use hydraulic machinery and pedal cars, and each person is responsible for a process. Some make molds, some apply stickers, and some burn the pots... What can we, the craftsmen in the guild, do?"

"Even if we can still produce, those cannibalistic merchants will lower prices and suppress us. We sell a pottery pot for less than the cost of making it."

"In the past, the guilds in the pottery industry could control many things. But now, even the potters' guild in Delft has collapsed. No one pays to join because nothing can be protected."

"My father often said that when he was young, he could make a lot of money every month. The pottery guild neither allowed outside goods to enter nor allowed more people to join the industry. All potters advanced and retreated together. But when I grew up, we, the sons of potters, either went to work as hired workers in pottery factories or left home."

"The past days were so beautiful, look at now! Everything is for profit, everything is for money. The warmth of the past is gone, craftsmen are no longer respected, and guilds are disintegrating one by one."

"The morality and conscience of the past have all turned into silver and copper coins today. In the past, if anyone dared to offend the interests of the guild to open a pottery factory and lower the price, the guild would definitely make the pottery factory go bankrupt. From apprentices to sales, the guild was in charge of everything. What about now?"

"Merchants only know about profit, and have no noble conscience at all, nor do they know how to respect tradition. Nobles have to consider local guilds, and merchants only think about money! Merchants have no morals, disintegrate all traditions, and trample on conscience... If this continues, the Netherlands will be finished sooner or later."

"Only by restoring the original tradition can the original conscience be restored."

"Only by restoring the original tradition can the glory of the past be restored."

"Merchants don't understand what tradition is, and nobles at least know how to respect tradition. If the Prince of Orange ruled, it would definitely not be like this."