Work Prophet
Chapter 583 - 15 Rest only makes people insatiable

Chapter 583: Chapter 15 Rest only makes people insatiable

"Lord Greymane, please reconsider," Helbert blurted out almost instinctively, and seeing Wild glance at him, he hastily added.

"I know Prophet Merlin saved Miss Donia’s life, and of course, we should reward him, perhaps with two thousand Golden Lions, as well as the friendship of the Singleton Family.

But sending Miss Donia to Green Field, I think this move is somewhat improper. I mean, she is your only granddaughter; you should keep her by your side."

Wild’s expression softened a bit, but he still shook his head and said, "I can’t protect her for a lifetime, and she’s not young anymore. It’s time for her to go out and see the world, to learn something."

"Then she could come to the Earth and Grain Church for learning, where we will assign the most erudite Priest from our church to teach Miss Donia exclusively," Helbert proposed.

"Oh, and what could you teach her, help her improve her martial arts? Or teach her how to manage her territory or lift curses from her serfs?" Wild countered.

Helbert fell silent.

When it came to enhancing martial arts, the Earth and Grain Church was certainly no match for the Double Rest Sect, who had just helped Sir Ireya win the championship of the martial arts tournament.

As for managing territories, they were no match for the Double Rest Sect either; the Arias family had been thriving ever since converting to the Saturday worship, and anyone with eyes could see it.

And not to mention lifting curses—the syphilis that had left the Church helpless was conquered by Li Yu.

Helbert racked his brains but could only think of one aspect where the Earth and Grain Church had the upper hand.

"We won’t instill toxic notions like ’rest is a right inherent to all people’ into Miss Donia."

The Priest said earnestly, "That would only make your serfs lazy, and your family and you would suffer heavy losses. And as you know, those greedy commoners, give them a little sweetness, and they might be grateful to you at first, but over time, they will only demand more.

"Once you set this precedent, it will get very bad. No one will work hard for you anymore."

Donia couldn’t help but interject, "But when Sir Ireya and Prophet Merlin and I went to the Royal Capital, we didn’t see the Arias family’s guards or the Sabbath of the Double Rest Sect slacking off.

"Hmm... you might say there were two who always went out, especially to the taverns; they were Minstrels even before converting to the Saturday faith, and they are still Minstrels after—they attend various parties as part of their work."

"That’s because you’ve seen the elite of the Arias family, who of course are more obedient than the average person, and they were under the watchful eyes of Sir Ireya and Prophet Merlin," Helbert explained.

Helbert looked at Wild, "Lord Greymane, I remember when you were younger, the old City Lord once made you manage some farms, so you have dealt with those farmers.

"So do you think if you give them two days off out of seven, they will work hard for the remaining five days?

"Or will they become immersed in those two days of rest, become languid and unable to summon the energy to work, just constantly looking forward to the next day off?"

"This..." Wild hesitated too. Indeed, those well-trained warriors and nobles with strong self-discipline might be able to live strictly according to this new routine.

But for the common people, especially the serfs, they would surely become increasingly lackadaisical.

Wild turned his gaze back to Li Yu, wondering if he had any good solutions.

In fact, such things had already happened in Green Field.

Long before Li Yu and Ireya set out for the Royal Capital, the Golden Eyes and Marco of the Judgement Court had dealt with a case of compulsory labor.

The incident began when a steward of an estate felt that the serfs were slacking off during their usual work, so he disregarded the arteachings of the Double Rest Sect and forced them to work overtime in the fields.

Later, he was punished by the Judgement Court, but the young judge called Marco was left with doubts after that.

He thought that although the corpulent steward was in the wrong, the serfs indeed had been lazy, causing the estate’s owner to suffer losses.

To this, Golden Eyes replied, "We are judges, tasked only with handling violations of the teachings. Other matters are not our concern."

Later, when Li Yu learned of this matter, he gathered all the judges and praised Golden Eyes’ approach.

Li Yu saw the answer to this problem as quite simple.

If all the land were rented out to the peasants, those lords would henceforth only focus on collecting rents and naturally would no longer fret over such matters.

Frankly, the serfdom labor system was inherently backward, and even without a rest day, the serfs were never as hardworking on the master’s lands as they were on their own.

It couldn’t even be considered laziness or cunning, simply a rational choice of an economic agent.

Of course, it’s easy to talk about such things, but real reforms are fraught with difficulties.

This is because the nobles of the Bratis Continent had grown accustomed to this mode of production.

Even if renting out the land could bring them greater profits, it would be hard for them to change their minds on short notice, and for various reasons, each year many tenant farmers go bankrupt and become serfs.

Especially in years of disastrous harvests, the number of serfs in the major families would greatly increase, and sometimes there are so many refugees that some bankrupt tenant farmers cannot even become serfs if they wish.

And having taken in so many serfs, those nobles naturally must have places to settle them, which is an important reason for the existence of those estates.

But Li Yu had now invented the pedal-driven spinning machine and had also started a spinning mill, in addition to his paper mill, brickworks, and the forthcoming iron foundry, glassworks, and so on.

He had no shortage of places to absorb those bankrupt peasants, so the only thing standing in the noble’s way of giving up the serfdom system was local tradition.

Li Yu didn’t intend to force this issue, as doing so could provoke strong discontent among the nobility. Instead, he preferred a more gentle approach.

By telling the nobles which method was more profitable, guiding them to slowly transform into mere landlords.

However, such things could not be said outright at the moment as they might alarm the nobles in the city.

Li Yu merely turned to Ireya and said, "Tell Sir Wild about the output of the Arias family’s estate this year."

Miss Rabbit nodded, "This autumn, my estate harvested one and a half times more crops than in previous years."

"How is that possible?" Helbert exclaimed in surprise, "Why would there be so much more? Did your estate suffer a disaster last year?"

"No, it was all thanks to Saturday."