(no subject)

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

Mucking

“Cory! You’ll be mucking from the Orren ponds today!” proclaimed Gorsen. The job required taking a wagon to the Orren village by the riverside, wading hip-deep in their fish ponds with a hoe, filling many baskets with stinking but very fertile pond-bottom mud, and sploshing them over the fallow fields of Dren Mafferhame. It was one of the most unpleasant chores in Dren Mafferhame. The farmers had a mucking-list, so that each one took a turn at that chore or another that was equally unpleasant.

“I did that last month,” said Coriander Rounse. “Shouldn’t be my turn again for two years. Did your mucking-list get mucked up?”

“Nothing of the sort. You’re a hired farmer now, remember, not a regular villager anymore. We’ll be setting you whatever tasks we regular villagers like.”

“Now that is unfair! I’ve lived in Dren Mafferhame half my life now, ever since I married Allam and Periwinkle!”

“It don’t matter how long you’ve lived here. It just matter whether you’re a regular villager or a hired farmer. You sold your shares of the village, that makes you not a regular villager any-the-more. You’re a hired farmer now. That means you do what we tell you, and I’m telling you to go muck from the Orren ponds today. You or Gathern will be doing it every time from now on.”

“Damson? Cherrybush?” Coriander asked the two villagers who were standing by the mayor awaiting their assignments for the day. “Will you let Gorsen put on such airs, like she’s a baron or something?”

Cherrybush shrugged. “Seems to me she’s got the right of it.”

“Seems to me like you want to get off the mucking-list altogether!” snapped Coriander.

“Seems to me the hired farm-girl ought to go do what she’s hired for, not stand around giving herself airs and complaining about what her betters say,” said Damson.

“Betters! A month ago we had just as much land as you did!” said Coriander.

“And now you don’t, and your kid burnt down the barn and your husband wrecked my carriage and all of that,” said Gorsen. “So we’re your betters now, and anyone would agree. Go do your work, Cory, or I’ll be docking the day’s pay from you. And you don’t have much more to sell to make up for it, do you?”

“And no stealing from us all any more to enrich yourselves, like you was!” said Damson.

Contempt

“We’re playing villagers,” said Nithia Caragaborse, age twelve. “Go away.”

“I can play villagers!” wailed Ellie. “You know I can! We were playing villagers together all year!”

“We’re not playing villagers with you now,” said Nithia. “You’re not one! Go away! Play by yourself!”

Ellie didn’t wind up playing by herself. Zie wound up crying in Tansy’s arms.

Fees

“You’ve been drinking ale and cider of late,” said Gorsen.

“None of us have been drunk and troublesome, have we?” said Allam. “I’m pretty sure we’ve all been sober enough in public.”

“The concern is not sobriety,” said Gorsen. “Though that would be a concern as well if you were being disorderly. The concern is, simply speaking, that you have been drinking ale and cider of late.”

“Everyone drinks ale and cider at dinner,” said Allam.

“Every villager drinks ale and cider at dinner. We don’t begrudge you the food — why on wood would we, you work alongside us every day! — but the ale and cider is for villagers,” said Gorsen.

“What, you’re telling us not to have any?” cried Allam.

“Hardly that! We’re more than happy to sell ale and cider to you or to anyone,” said Gorsen. “And cheaply, too. A lozen a day for all five of you, for as much as you like. That’s twenty-seven lozens for the last month.”

“That’s dear not cheap, since it was free for all our lives before this! For the next month, we’ll be drinking water, so don’t be charging us such a fee!”

Comments

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Of course going bankrupt does have lots and lots of negative effects, like no one will loan you money for a REALLY REALLY long time, while it is still on your record. And if you are or have gone bankrupt, lots and lots of types of goods and services are more expensive, because you are considered a risk. So the full version is something to be avoided, and the lesser version where you restructure the collection of your debts and your business or life or sell off some of your assets or whatever... But at least you won't have your debtors trying to collect so much.

Anyway, even without putting such a high priority in repayment of debts that a system that does debt bondage does, loaning people money is still REALLY REALLY profitable and widespread here. Institutions that loan money just have to collect more data on who to loan and how and interest rates and such. So you don't actually NEED the insurance of debt slavery hovering over people to encourage people to loan money and stuff.

And loans (in the right system) can be a really good thing -- taking on a loan to start a business or do another sort of investment that is intended to create lots of future revenue can be a really really good thing, and especially a good thing for societies to encourage investments and creations of new businesses and ideas and stuff like that.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Also! Insurance! If you do the math right, insurance for people or organizations who loan money can be a viable and useful way of mitigating risk of nonpayment.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Not being able to borrow money would be fine with me I don't see why anyone should borrow money anyway but why would it make anything else more expensive?

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

"I don't think you are a good risk of repaying me for this service I am going to be providing you over time, so because of the added risk of me providing you this service to you in particular, you will be charged more."

Higher risk demands higher payoff to be worth it...

[terrana.livejournal.com]

Plus I think being Orren - especially as Orren an Orren as Delight - automatically puts you in a higher risk group.