(Crimea War Map)
Before the abolition, the czar exercised autocratic rule in China, and Russia, as a big agricultural country in Europe, exported a large amount of grain every year. In this way, Russia's agricultural economy was involved in the international market, causing the crisis of serfdom, which seriously hindered the development of Russian capitalist industry and made it far behind western countries. Facts have proved that the failure of the Crimean war did have this reason.
Engels wrote when talking about the Crimean War: "The Crimean War is characterized by a desperate struggle between a nation that uses primitive production forms and several nations that have modern production." This sentence fully shows that serfdom under the czar's autocracy weakened economic and even military power.
This war also made the tsar clearly realize the necessity and urgency of abolishing serfdom. So czar Alexander II soon formally signed the reform decree and the declaration of abolishing serfdom, which represented that the personal freedom of farmers was finally released and their rights and interests would be protected from now on.
However, after 300 to 400 years of serfdom, the residual aftermath hindered farmers' new rights, indicating that farmers' land security level has not been improved. Even taking measures such as renting land, buying land and reclaiming land from the sea has not changed the status quo. But people always have to find a way to make a living and earn some extra money to supplement their families. As a result, sideline business has arisen.
Farmers changed from farming to animal husbandry.
Want to do sideline business, some farmers set their sights on animal husbandry. However, due to the incomplete reform, the land in the hands of farmers has decreased, and the land area of pasture and grassland has also shrunk, which means that the development of animal husbandry is slow, but it is not stagnant.
At this time, the development of animal husbandry presents regionalization. Cattle are concentrated in Finland, the Baltic Sea, Poland and other poor provinces in Europe. There are more horses in the black soil area, the middle reaches of Volga and the southern Urals. A large number of sheep are raised in grassland areas. Taking the black soil area as an example, the main force of agricultural production and animal husbandry is cattle and horses. Sheep, goats, piglets and other small livestock are raised to meet people's daily needs, while poultry and bees are raised for life and market transactions.
People usually use the number of livestock as a measure of wealth. The greater the number, the more secure the stability of farmers' economy. On the contrary, the reduction in quantity has a direct negative impact on agriculture. The reason for its decline is usually the continuous growth of population. The faster the population grows, the fewer livestock there are per capita. Insufficient land and feed will lead to malnutrition of animals and reduce the number of livestock. Of course, veterinarians were very rare at that time. Coupled with the low level of medical care, animals are sick and cannot be treated. The increase in the death base is an inevitable result.
Even so, farmers' participation in animal husbandry has indeed gained something. They raise all kinds of livestock, so that they not only become the labor force to help them plow the fields, but also improve the farming efficiency and use the free labor resources; It can also be the most traditional and effective fertilizer in the storage field. When the soil is fertile, crops can thrive. Finally, it can become a natural manufacturing machine for milk, meat and eggs of livestock products.
(dairy products)
After these animal products meet people's needs, they will flow into the market and form a commodity-currency relationship. As a result, the price of livestock is rising and the number of dairy processing plants is increasing. Generally speaking, farmers must have at least two adult livestock to maintain adequate milk sources. Although it is not easy to raise dairy animals and the income from milk is not very considerable, people still enjoy it. In addition, at that time, dairy processing enterprises were mostly semi-manual.
Type management, the production equipment is not advanced enough, the guidance technology is not perfect enough, so that the production efficiency is low. Hygienic standards have not been reached to a large extent, and the quality is unsatisfactory to Russians, but according to the current food standards, it is very unqualified. However, the price of this dairy product in the market is still so high that most middle peasants and poor peasants cannot afford to buy it.
In any case, the rapid development of dairy processing industry has shown that the positive trend of animal husbandry has driven the market and brought certain benefits to rich farmers and middle farmers, which is a remarkable manifestation of the rise of sideline.
Farmers changed from farming to working.
In addition to animal husbandry, many farmers have also changed from farming to working. "Work" refers to engaging in handicraft activities. Russian farmers refer to a wider range of handicrafts, including other income-generating activities in the slack season, in addition to pure handicraft activities. However, this kind of physical activity is generally divided into local work and foreign work.
Farmers who work locally are people who want to increase their non-agricultural income but don't want to be too far away from home. They work with landlords and rich peasants in local or neighboring villages to earn wages. There are two ways to calculate remuneration: piecework and timing, and timing can be divided into annual work, seasonal regular work and daily work. Among them, annual work is the most ideal form for farmers engaged in agricultural production. The number of fixed-term workers employed in winter is less than that in summer. Daily employment is the current way of employment, mainly engaged in various jobs during the busy farming period, with higher wages. Employers can also reserve staff in advance by paying wages, but the conditions are very harsh, and the working hours are easy to conflict with the busy farming hours of their fields.
Most people who go out to work have time to go out to work because of the great family economic pressure and the restriction of Russian natural conditions and the short production season. At the same time, the development of industry also provides opportunities and possibilities for farmers to go out to work, which is also an incentive to attract migrant workers. After investigation, migrant farmers usually engage in industry, agriculture, handicrafts and short-term work. Wage income is not very stable, with a maximum of 40 rubles and a minimum of 5 rubles. Moreover, most of the people who go out to work are poor peasants, and only a few middle peasants and rich peasants go out to work for different purposes. In Russia, the distribution of migrant farmers is very uneven, and most of them are men. Later, with the popularity of identity documents, we can clearly understand the situation of farmers going out to work according to the proportion of farmers registered.
Among them, at the beginning of the 20th century, migrant workers in non-black soil areas accounted for 56.5% of all migrant workers, most of whom were migrant workers in central industrial areas, with a total number of more than 6,543,800+100,000. Franklin once said, "Labor is the father of happiness." These people who go out to work are role models who exchange their labor for happiness.
Sideline drives the rural economy.
186 1 year, Alexander II abolished serfdom, which was actually based on the reform to safeguard the interests of slave owners. It was doomed that the czar regime remained basically motionless, and most of the land was still in the hands of aristocratic landlords. Because of this, sideline was revived and promoted the development of Russian capitalist rural economy.
Compared with agriculture, sideline gradually shows a posture close to capitalism. From an economic point of view, the income from sideline business is very slim. But it is very one-sided to evaluate the income simply from the economic level. The correct way is to observe the advantages and disadvantages of sideline in Russian history from the perspective of economic and social development.
(Alexander II)
First, the rapid development of animal husbandry has promoted the commercialization of dairy products and their by-products, provided rich and practical necessities, promoted the progress of productivity, and continuously contributed power and fertilizer to agricultural production.
The second advantage lies in the revival of handicrafts. Russian traditional handicrafts have superb skills and a long history, which can be traced back to the Gullas era. After the abolition of serfdom, handicrafts became the best means for farmers to earn extra money. With more and more people joining the handicraft industry, there are more and more kinds of handicraft products and the processing technology is also improving. By the beginning of the 20th century, handicraft activities had spread all over almost every village in Europe and Russia. It is said that the wood processing industry has the largest number of employees in the handicraft industry, and its farmers account for about one third of the total, which also reflects the rich forest resources of the Russian nation and honed their processing skills.
The revival of handicraft industry not only enriches people's material and spiritual life and relieves economic pressure, but also inherits and develops a traditional culture, which is the most precious cultural wealth of the country for today's society. Of course, handicrafts also promoted the development of capitalist economy.
The third advantage is that a large number of freelancers formed by migrant workers have filled the market. These labors mainly go deep into areas rich in raw materials and handicrafts, and their peers have not set foot in them. While expanding their influence, they also promoted the development of capitalist economy.
(farming life scene)
To borrow Laozi's words: "Misfortune is a blessing; Happiness is a blessing, but misfortune lurks. "The more migrant workers, of course, will improve the economy of the inflow area, but it will also cause a shortage of labor in the inflow area and destroy the labor structure of the two places, thus making the regional population distribution different, directly and indirectly causing different economic development conditions in different places.
Sideline, called "vice", means that it only plays a icing on the cake role in the agricultural economy. Nevertheless, after Russia abolished serfdom, it has become an indispensable part of farmers' lives.
If there is no sideline, I am afraid that the living conditions of farmers will be more difficult, the situation of agricultural economy will be more difficult, and the economic development of Russian capitalism will be more slow. Therefore, the rise of sideline has promoted social progress, which is of great help to Russia's entry into modern society and the promotion of agricultural economic progress!