Chapter 18 Private Property

After everything on the stall was sold out, Zhu's father cleaned up the stall and asked Zhu Pingchuan to lead Zhu Ping'an to wait here while he went to the grocery store to sell the rabbit skins.

Because Zhu's father and the grocery store were familiar customers, the grocery store would not let Zhu's father suffer a loss, so Zhu Ping'an did not insist on going with him.

Zhu's father came back after a while, with a total of five rabbit skins, each rabbit skin was twelve cents, a total of sixty cents.

Seeing his father put all the money into the backpack, Zhu Ping'an's eyes lit up and said happily, "It's a lot of money. I'll give it to my mother when I go back. My mother will definitely be very happy."

"No, we can only keep twenty-four cents of this money, and the rest will go to my grandmother." Zhu's father touched Zhu Ping'an's head and explained with a smile.

Oh, I remember.

The Zhu family rules stipulate that all income earned from the time when you should have been doing farm work during the day must be returned to the public, and as for private income at night or other time when you don't have to do farm work, you must also hand over 80% of it.

In ancient times, private property was not allowed without a family division, and the patriarchal system was still in place.

We went up the mountain during the day to do farm work, so all the income from the mountain had to be turned over to the public account; as for bamboo weaving, since my father mostly did it at night, he had to turn over 80% of the income.

All the money from selling rabbit skins had to be turned over to my grandmother for public account. In addition to turning over all the rabbit skins, the 50 wen from the wild game this time had to be turned over.

Of course, 80% of the money from my father's bamboo weaving had to be turned over. This time, my father's bamboo weaving also sold for 120 wen, so if he turned it over, he had to turn over about 100 wen.

In other words, all the things this time were earned by my father's hard work, but this time he had to turn over about 200 wen in total. If it wasn't his own honeysuckle, my father would only be left with about 20 wen this time.

As far as Zhu Ping'an knows, the eldest uncle's family seems to have never paid a penny to the family. Instead, they always take money from the family account, including the money for the eldest uncle's poetry, books, and going out to meet friends; the third uncle's family did pay, but it was very little; forget about the fourth uncle's family, the fourth uncle and the little fourth aunt are also trying to take advantage of the account.

Although they pay a lot of money, the grandparents often favor the eldest uncle and the fourth uncle's family.

Whenever there is something at home, the grandmother often asks the father to pay, and the father always pays the money readily, which makes the mother Chen and the father angry many times.

Filial piety is a must, but you also have to take care of the family. The eldest brother will get married in a few years, and I have to save money for him to marry a wife. The grandparents have always favored the eldest uncle for the imperial examination, and I am afraid they can't pay much money. Besides, if there is any change in the family, we have to be prepared.

So, it is necessary to brainwash my father.

"Why do you have to give it to grandma?" Zhu Ping'an asked with his head tilted up.

"Because we need to eat, we eat at home." Zhu's father explained.

Lip curling.

"The honeysuckle was promised to me by my grandmother, so I want to keep the money, and the silver nude was also given to me by others." Zhu Ping'an acted like a child.

Zhu's father thought about it, yes, indeed, the whole family laughed at the flowers picked by Zhu'er after returning from the mountain, and my mother did say that the honeysuckle belonged to Zhu'er.

"Well, okay." Zhu's father nodded.

"Dad, how much could you sell for bamboo weaving in the town before? How much for grandma?" Seeing that Zhu's father agreed, Zhu Ping'an felt that Zhu's father could still be saved, so he asked casually.

Zhu's father answered while packing up his belongings, "I used to sell 60 or 70 coins each time, and I gave the family about 50 coins."

"Then let's give grandma 10 more coins from selling bamboo weaving this time, and 60 coins for grandma." Zhu Ping'an looked like a filial child.

In this way, in addition to the money from the honeysuckle, 60 coins can be kept from this income.

"Ah?" Zhu's father was stunned for a moment, then smiled, "It's not calculated this way, my son. This time, the bamboo weaving sold a lot."

"Yes, my son, you are still young and can't count." The eldest brother Zhu Pingchuan also said.

This method didn't work, so Zhu Ping'an had to change another way.

"My aunt and my fourth aunt both have silver hairpins. My mother has been envious for a long time, but she hasn't saved enough money." Zhu Ping'an's eyes seemed to show the scene of his mother Chen envying his aunt and the fourth aunt, which was quite contagious.

Zhu's father also thought of Chen at home. She had paid a lot for herself and the family, so she should save some money to make her daughter-in-law happy. Besides, the money handed over to the family for bamboo weaving this time was ten more than before, wasn't it?

In the end, Zhu's father also nodded in agreement, and carefully divided the silver money into two parts. The money handed over to the family was put aside, and the other part, including the money for honeysuckle, was carefully wrapped and put in Zhu Ping'an's small backpack, and covered with the grass left over by the cow.

Before returning home from the town, Zhu's father bought some oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea and other daily necessities at the market.

Zhu Ping'an also bought two meat buns, wrapped them in paper and carefully placed them under the backpack to cover them.

Zhu's father thought the child was greedy and asked a question.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Ping'an replied, "The meat buns I ate in the morning were delicious, and I want to take them back for my mother to try."

This made Zhu's father's face a little hot. His youngest son remembered to bring things for Chen, but he didn't think of buying things for Chen on his own initiative.

Fortunately, it's not too late to mend the fence after the sheep have been lost. Because Zhu's father didn't have much money, he couldn't buy some jewelry or something to please Chen, but it was still possible to buy some cloth and let Chen make two new sets of clothes for him. Thinking of Chen's delicate appearance in new clothes, Zhu's father grinned.

There was a cloth shop not far from the stall, and Zhu's father led his two sons into the cloth shop. The shop occupies a much larger area than the pharmacy. As soon as I entered the door, I was dazzled by the colorful cloth inside.

"Sir, you are here to buy cloth, please come this way."

The shop assistant was also very insightful. He did not lead Zhu's father to the silk weaving area, but directly led Zhu's father to the cotton cloth area with moderate prices.

"This is all authentic Songhu cotton cloth, which is directly purchased from Songjiang Prefecture. It is exquisite, strong and beautiful. Whether it is made into clothes or quilts, it is very popular. The price is also affordable." The shop assistant is eloquent and has a strong ability to read people's minds. It seems that he can see through Zhu's father's thoughts. In the end, he emphasized that the price is affordable.

Songjiang Prefecture clothes the world, and Huang Dao Po's merits benefit the nine states. As expected, Songjiang cotton cloth has spread far to Kaoshan Town at the foot of the mountain.

"How much is this cloth?" Zhu's father pointed to a piece of cotton cloth with a peach blossom white background and asked.

"120 yuan per piece." The shop assistant replied, "This piece of cloth can make 8 tops, and if it is used to make skirts and pants, it can make 12 pieces. It is very cost-effective."

In the Ming Dynasty, one piece was equal to four zhang, and one zhang was ten feet. If converted into modern units, one foot is 0.31 meters, which means that one piece of cloth is about twelve meters.