Gui Zi Scroll Chapter 417 Family, Family Background
The housewarming ceremony was not very grand. In the eyes of many people, it was even very low-key. The Feng family did not hold any celebrations. They simply notified relatives and friends to let everyone know that they had moved. Feng Ziying did not even say anything. He took care of everything and left everything to the women in the back house to take care of. It wasn't until the move was almost complete that he, as the head of the family, went to take care of it.
"Satisfied, why are you dissatisfied? You ladies have worked so hard these days to take care of things well. I just sit back and enjoy the fruits of my husband's life. I should be grateful to you ladies for my husband's good life."
Shen Yixiu, Xue Baochai and Lin Daiyu were led by the three girls, followed by Baoqin, Miaoyu, Yingchun, You Erjie and other girls followed, and a group of girls gathered behind. Taking advantage of the good weather and the bright sunshine, they could cover the entire garden. The layout here was settled.
Yuanyang and Jin Chuaner walked in front and led the way.
"Don't say that, my husband. You are busy with big things outside. I and my sisters have no ability to share my worries for my husband, so we can only take care of these trivial things in the back house, so that my husband will not have to worry about it when he comes back. "
Shen Yixiu smiled sweetly and looked forward to his appearance.
"It's all thanks to the two sisters Baochai and Daiyu, as well as Yuanyang, Ping'er, and Jinchuan'er, who have carefully discussed with me during this period, and finally managed to make a rough move here, because considering that it may still be possible in the future Some sisters are coming in, so I’ve reserved some first.”
Baochai and Daiyu kept saying modestly, while Yuanyang, Ping'er and Jinchuan'er were all too busy saying they didn't dare.
"Sir, please see, this was the study room of Master Bao. It has been changed now. It is mainly used for daily assignments. On weekdays, the slaves Heping'er and Jin Chuaner take turns arranging daily doorkeeping, driving, and driving. Kitchen, cleaning, masonry, flower seedlings and other matters,
Since Feng Ziying was invited to come here today to take a look at the entire arrangement of the Feng Mansion, Yuanyang did his best to do the main introduction. This was what Feng Ziying and Shen Xuelin had agreed upon at the beginning.
The daily chores in the house are managed by Yuanyang, with Ping'er and Jinchuan'er as assistants, assisting the three grandmothers.
If there are large financial expenditures in daily life, then the three daughters of Shen Xuelin must be invited to take charge.
If it is a general matter, Yuanyang, Ping'er, and Jinchuan'er will handle it and keep it in a file. At the end of each month, it will be reported to Shen, Xuelin, and the three girls for review.
Yuanyang, Ping'er, and Jin Chuan'er also work in shifts, so they don't have to work too hard.
Although there are fewer women, servants, and servants in the mansion now, as the number of people in the house increases, and the huge courtyard and garden will definitely continue to increase, so the logistics management of the entire mansion is also quite complicated. .
Now a rough calculation shows that in addition to the grandmothers, aunts and their personal maids, there are more than 80 male servants in the entire Feng Mansion, such as concierges, night watchmen, coachmen and grooms, gardeners, masons, carpenters, purchasing, and warehousing. People, this does not include Li Guibao, a large-scale professional bodyguard.
In addition, there are women as the main servants such as the kitchen, laundry, and cleaners, as well as many maids in each room, which adds up to more than a hundred people.
Before, Feng Ziying couldn't believe how there were so many people. Later, Yuanyang simply introduced the situation in Daiyu's house with three bedrooms, and Feng Ziying finally understood.
In Daiyu's house alone, in addition to the two personal maids Zicuckoo and Xueyan, there are four young maids, eight rough maids, and four women who are responsible for keeping watch at the outer door. In addition, Miaoyu originally only had one personal maid.
, two little maids, four maids, and four women keeping watch at the outer gate. The same goes for Xiuyan. Now that Miaoyu and Xiuyan have given birth to children, they each have a wet nurse, a little maid, and a maid.
Maid, that is to say, there are more than 40 servants in these three rooms alone.
Feng Ziying originally found it unbelievable that the two houses of Rong Ning had thousands of people. Now it is her turn. According to a rough calculation, excluding the male servants common to the whole house, the number of female servants in each house is forty.
is growing, and may continue to grow.
In other words, not counting his mother’s aunt, there are two servants in his third house.
There are more than a hundred people, and if you include my mother and aunt, the number will probably exceed 300.
In addition, I also have professionals who are responsible for bodyguard protection. There are dozens of them. Even if they don’t all need to be stationed at my house, some of them will definitely stay at my house on night watch every day.
So after all this calculation, Feng Ziying felt that the artificial labor force in this era was really worthless. It was no wonder that the Rongning Second Mansion had such a grand event with thousands of people.
Feng Ziying also asked about the wages of the servants in her house - that is, the monthly salary, which was basically the same as that of the Rongning Second House, slightly higher. After all, the Rongguo House had begun to decline at that time and could not make ends meet.
In this way, it is considered very competitive in Beijing, so the monthly income of the Feng Mansion is relatively abundant, and the servants are quite satisfied, especially at the end of the year, the Feng Mansion basically gives out a bonus - a red envelope.
, is also a large number, so the loyalty of the servants of the entire Feng Mansion is much stronger than that of the Rong Ning Mansion.
Of course, the Jia family is a century-old family, and there are many Jia clan members in it. These are people who don't do farming but only ask for money to eat. In addition, the population is so large that they can't afford it.
For example, in the Rongguo Mansion, Wang Xifeng's monthly allowance is about five taels of silver, and Li Wan's monthly allowance is ten taels because he has to take care of Jia Lan. The girls and aunts who have not left the government have the same monthly allowance, which is two taels per month.
A maid like Yuanyang who stays with Mrs. Jia can probably get one tael of silver per month. Jin Chuaner who stays with Mrs. Wang can also get this amount, and the same goes for Xiren who stays with Baoyu.
If it is a big maid in an ordinary house, such as the Musk Moon Autumn Pattern, it will cost about one ounce of money. According to the conversion ratio between silver and copper coins in the Dazhou Dynasty, one tael of silver can be exchanged for 1,200 copper coins, that is
It is said that in the entire Rongguo Mansion, except for Yuanyang, Jinchuaner, and Xiren, who can get one or two silver coins a month, the other maids can only get a sling of coins, which is one thousand copper coins. And ordinary maids can get five hundred coins.
A maid can only get between 200 and 400 copper coins.
For a rural family in the suburbs of Beijing, the annual income is only twenty taels of silver. This family basically refers to a family with three male laborers and two or three female laborers. The maids in the Rongguo Mansion, even the income of the maids.
They are all very enviable.
For example, the monthly income of a maid in the Rongguo Mansion can reach twelve taels of silver, which is ten taels of silver. If you add the three to five taels of silver red envelopes awarded by the mansion at the end of the year, you can occasionally get it from the masters once or twice.
Rewards such as silver beans, if calculated, the income of a maid can reach fifteen or six taels of silver, which is almost equivalent to two or three strong laborers in the suburbs of Beijing.
The farmer's income does not include the maids the government has to pay every year.
We buy some clothes, coats and trousers, which is also a big expense.
Calculated based on current commodity prices, in normal years, the price of grain at Tongzhou Zhangjiawan dock is about 9.5 cents per stone, japonica rice is about 1.25 cents per stone, and inferior flour is about 1.24 cents per stone, for a maid.
The annual income can buy about ten shi of flour, which is 1,500 jins of flour, or 14 shi of japonica rice, which is 2,100 jins of japonica rice, or ten shi of corn which is indispensable to poor people in the north.
Seven stones of corn can be broken down into 2,600 kilograms of corn.
Of course, in the later stages, the Rongguo Mansion could no longer afford such expenses, so not only were the maid servants deducted from their monthly payments, but they were often in arrears, and even calculating characters like Wang Xifeng and Tan Chun were unable to solve the problem.
This problem.
In fact, it is difficult for a clever woman to make a living without rice. With the family living on a mountain and unable to make ends meet, the Rongguo Mansion is in decline and even dilapidated. Even if there is no case of rebellion, it will be difficult to maintain it.
It can be said that the case of Fu Ni was a fig leaf for the Jia family's collapse, lest they could no longer survive and could only shamelessly sell the things in their own house. In fact, this kind of thing
This has been done for a long time, but it is just a method of pledging it at a pawn shop and then not redeeming it when it expires.
Compared with the income of the servants in the Rongguo Mansion, the Feng Mansion was a bit chaotic in the early days. Later, when Shen Yixiu and Xue Baochai married in, they began to standardize it. But generally speaking, the income of the servants in the Feng family was probably higher than that in the Rongguo Mansion.
About 20% to 30%.
For example, generally
If the servant girl takes a drop of money in Rongguo Mansion, then she will take one or two silver coins in Feng Mansion, which is an extra two hundred copper coins, such as Qingwen, Yunshang, Xiangling, Ying'er, Zicuckoo, Xueyan, Siqi, Xiuju
, a personal maid like Ling Guan only gets one, two or five taels of silver from the Feng Mansion.
Of course, the maids like Qingwen, Yunshang, Xiangling, Zijuan, and Siqi have been taken away by Feng Ziying and have taken over the house. The maids who usually have to sleep with them are different.
Two silver coins per month, that is, doubled every month.
Concubines like Second Sister You, Yingchun, and Xiuyan received five taels of silver per month. However, because Yingchun and Xiuyan had children, in addition to doubling their monthly wages and receiving ten taels of silver, they also received
There will also be an additional ten taels of silver per month given to each of the two daughters as a subsidy for the children, which will be used by the mother-in-law.
These ten taels of silver are not used for the children's food, clothing, housing and transportation. Those expenses are uniformly spent by the government. This money is a special allowance given to mothers alone, and is used to encourage women in the government to have more children. Raising a daughter to help the Feng family continue to flourish and spread its branches is also a reward specially used by the Duan family from their own private money.
As concubines, Miaoyu and Baoqin received eight taels of silver per month, but because Miaoyu gave birth to a child, the monthly salary doubled to sixteen taels per month. In addition, the child allowance of ten taels of silver was added, reaching 20 taels. Six taels, this is already a quite astonishing amount for a woman's family. The actual monthly payment of the three mistresses is actually more of a formality, but rules still need to be set.
The monthly allowance for each of the three of them was thirty taels. Because Shen Yixiu gave birth to Tong Niang, the monthly allowance was doubled to sixty taels. In addition, the subsidy for the additional twelve children reached an astonishing seventy taels per month. After one year, Eight hundred and forty taels is equivalent to the income of 42 rural households in the suburbs of Beijing, and is almost as much as the official salary of a fourth-rank official in the Zhou Dynasty.
After such a calculation, Feng Ziying herself felt very appalling, but when she thought about it, compared with the two million monthly pocket money of the wealthy ladies in modern Hong Kong, it seemed that it was beyond the pale.
All in all, the total expenses incurred in the mansion every year are quite staggering, but for a family that is prospering, it seems to be a normal phenomenon.