plumnovel #592 - Constitutional Convention (Central)
#592 - Constitutional Convention (Central)
The definition of subjects, obligations, and rights? Perpetual leasehold?
Venice and Abbaz next to him exchanged glances, both seeing surprise in each other's eyes.
Within the empire, there has always been a vague concept of 'what is a citizen' and 'their rights and obligations'.
This is a prominent manifestation of unwritten law that scholars of El have criticized. To say nothing of other things, it facilitates the small manipulations of notaries, judges, and lawyers.
This is even in the civilized world west of the Dragonspine Mountains!
The Norn lords in the east directly treat their subjects as livestock, often sending knights to forcibly capture a group of subjects and sell them to arms dealers and slave traders.
This has led to the Norn people occupying nearly half of the mercenary market and the monster hunter community in the empire.
And this small Thousand River Valley is actually trying to legally define the identity of its citizens?
Lufiel blinked, her eyes revealing a lot of surprise.
After being told by Venice, she was really a little afraid that this constitutional conference would discuss some low-level topics or argue about a beehive, but she didn't expect that it would be such a high-end legal clause from the beginning.
She immediately took out her pen and paper, ready to start recording.
"According to Article 1 of the 'Sacred Charter', the lord's power comes from the dual recognition of the subjects and the Holy Father, so we must determine what a subject is, and thus deduce what the subject owns and bears.
Yesterday, we passed the definition of a subject, that is, a resident who is born or resides in Thousand River Valley for a long time, and is loyal to the country and abides by the constitution and national laws, is a subject of Thousand River Valley.
And the most basic rights of the subjects are the power given to them by the Holy Father as believers - life and freedom, which are not allowed to be illegally violated.
The form of serfdom obviously violates this standard, but directly abolishing serfdom infringes on the rights of the lords who are also believers, so the two Highnesses proposed the 'Law on Granting Perpetual Lease Rights to Serfs'.
The human rights of the subjects are thus tied to the perpetual lease rights of the serfs, entering today's agenda."
The master of ceremonies loudly recited today's agenda and opening remarks.
"The two Highnesses have some doubts about this, so I hope that all representatives can answer them and provide reasonable suggestions to the two esteemed Highnesses."
For the three El youths, the term 'perpetual leasehold' was not unheard of, although it was niche.
In the southern region of France, this model has already been implemented in some large aristocratic manors.
The so-called perpetual leasehold is to divide the land into ownership and use rights.
Once both parties sign a perpetual lease agreement, the lord is not allowed to deprive the serf or arbitrarily increase the land rent unless the serf himself gives up.
However, the local great lords, including the mountain knights who have made meritorious service in the war and are eager to obtain the manor in the plains county, cannot accept the abolition of the serfdom system.
Because serfs are a certain degree of personal dependence and fixed assets.
Some serfs work as laborers in the city, and the lord forces his land to be cultivated by other serfs.
The serfs who farm in their hometown have to pay more land rent because they cultivate more land, and the serfs who work as laborers in the city still need to pay the land rent for that field to the lord.
One piece of land is scraped twice.
Otherwise, the lord can use the 'Fugitive Slave Act' to forcibly deprive the serf of all property, even life.
Depriving this part of the benefit is equivalent to a sharp decline in income for the nobles and lords, and the representatives of the right wing all lowered their heads to discuss countermeasures.
In this newly established advisory council, their goal is not to persuade the people of the other two seats, but to persuade the people sitting on the throne.
Whoever can persuade the two Highnesses on the throne can win. This is the consensus they have reached these days.
The victories and defeats that the three representatives gain in the debate are not necessarily transformed into victories and defeats in the bill. The two ten-thousand-vote grandpas are the legislators.
So they must consider the interests and goals of the two ten-thousand-vote grandpas at the same time, and compromise for this.
After coughing, a noble representative from the right wing stood up: "Your two Highnesses, you see, I agree that the lives of the subjects cannot be taken away casually, but freedom, haven't they already used it up?
Your Excellency the Autocratic Duke, Your Excellency the Grand Patriarch, the territory is mine, and they will starve to death without this piece of land. They don't have extra freedom, because they exchanged their freedom for life!"
"That's right."
"Well said."
The surrounding circle of nobles immediately began to praise in a flattering manner.
In the eyes of the nobles, it is a big concession to admit that the lives of the serfs cannot be taken away casually.
It's a pity that the representatives of the left wing don't think so. Soon, Armand was elected.
Lufiel on the sidelines blinked. Where did this kid come from? But soon her doubtful and funny expression disappeared, because Armand started to speak.
"Life is given to the believers by the Holy Father. They work for you, so you must protect the lives of the believers. This is not an extra gift, but what the believers deserve. How can freedom be exchanged for life?"
The noble's face froze, and he thought for a long time but couldn't reply, and just sat down with his head lowered in the booing of the left wing.
The two opening debates and rebuttals made Lufiel pleasantly surprised again and again. She looked at Venice with a sullen expression triumphantly, as if saying, "How is it? Is it still vulgar language?"
Logically speaking, this debate is quite rigorous and reasonable.
The common "Peter was killed by a person, Peter is a person, so Peter was killed by Peter, sentence Peter to be hanged, case closed." that is common in rural courts of this era did not appear.
The quill pen moved like flying, and Lufiel quickly abbreviated and summarized the dialogue and logic of both parties on the paper.
At this time, the second round of confrontation has begun.
Seeing that they could not argue on basic rights, the representatives of the right wing began to try to make things difficult on the right of permanent lease.
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"What if they are given the right of permanent lease? Do they know how to cultivate? Serfs just need to bury their heads in work. We nobles need to think about more things!"
Armand stood up to refute: "Do you cultivate more land, or do they cultivate more land? Free armed farmers can cultivate well, why can't serfs do it?"
"Armed farmers are a branch of the nobility, a minority. Even if they are in chaos, they cannot affect the overall situation." Crowen jumped up to refute. "Originally, we could adjust according to the income of the field, collecting less in disaster years and more in bumper years. It has become a fixed share every year, which is too rigid."
"Bullshit!" Legion Commander Rudilo jumped onto the table, pointed at Crowen's nose and cursed, "I am a serf from your territory. You said 'collecting less in disaster years and more in bumper years'. You collected more in bumper years, but I never saw you collect less in disaster years."
Earl Sampoli sat on the spot and complained endlessly: "The serfs ruined the field. I will bear the consequences. Then who will make up for the missing field income?"
"Then you can collect a fixed rent."
As the topic became more and more in-depth, the representatives rolled up their sleeves, tapped the table, argued with sweat on their foreheads, and even unbuttoned their collars and used constitutional documents to fan themselves.
In this chaotic scene, Lufiel actually saw the dwarves on the left and right seats dozing off, and the representatives in the middle seat were even secretly bowing their heads to eat breakfast.
Listening to the noisy shouts, she embarrassedly stopped writing. Such a chaotic scene cannot be recorded.
She didn't even want to look at Venice's face that was holding back a smile. It was quite bluffing at the beginning, but how did it suddenly change in the middle?
"Order! Order!" Molliati's iron fist hammered the table, while Horn snapped his fingers to the side.
The guards and executioners holding axe-guns immediately gripped their axe-guns and kept stamping the ground with the gun barrels. In the orderly sound of vibrations, the disputes of many representatives gradually subsided.
"Ding--" A crisp bell rang, Horn put down the small wooden hammer, "Representative Armand of the left seat applies to conduct a question and answer session with the representatives of the right seat. Do you accept?"
The nobles and landlords of the right seat were all stunned, and then overjoyed, and raised their hands: "Accept, why not accept?"
The so-called question and answer session is to send one person as the entire representative to persuade the other side, which is equivalent to one person challenging all the opposing representatives.
Of course, the advantage is that no one else is allowed to speak, and only two people are allowed to speak at a time, so there will be no more noisy situations as before.
If that Dean Martin applied, they might have to consider it carefully, but this sixteen or seventeen-year-old kid, why not accept it?
The whispering voices of the representatives flowed into Lufiel's ears, and she gradually understood the meaning.
Turning her gaze to Armand, who walked to the center of the venue with a smile on his face, Lufiel couldn't help but worry. Can this boy, who is three years younger than herself, persuade these nobles?
"Distinguished representatives of the right seat, in my opinion, the right of permanent lease is good news for most of you."
Armand's first sentence made the nobles couldn't help but sneer.