The price of buying livestock in ancient times

In ancient times, the price of livestock varied depending on the species and region. Here are some examples of how much livestock was paid in ancient times:

1.In ancient times, a sheep was worth about two pieces of silver (450 yuan).

2.The price of horses in the Ming Dynasty also changed. In general, when the world is peaceful, horses are cheap.

During the Yongle period, a horse sold for 4 taels of silver (1,200 yuan), which was equivalent to an entry-level mountain bike. Later, it became more and more expensive, probably related to the war on the frontier. During the Jiajing period, a horse was sold for 13-18 taels of silver (3,900-5,400 yuan).

Please note that these are inferred from historical records and references in literary works and may differ.

Depending on the period, gender and age, the price of servants varies. Generally speaking, the servant's ** is relatively low. Because those who sell themselves into slavery are not normal people.

Either they are poor, or they have suffered from accidents, or they are in debt and cannot be repaid; In short, they are desperate, forced to have a way to live, so they will not ask for too high a price. However, there are intermediaries in general buying and selling, and after intermediaries, ** is not low.

During the Qianlong period, someone bought 4 ordinary servants, and spent a total of 25 taels, which means that an ordinary servant's ** is about 7 taels**. It costs 12,250 yuan for a servant. Once they enter the door of the master's house, most of them can only work from young and strong to old and frail, and they can't do it when they are old, and if they have no savings, and they can't have a son and a half daughter, most of them will live very miserable in their old age, and they will starve to death and no one will bury them on the streets.

If you are lucky enough to meet a conscientious master's family, or when you can't work, the master burns the servant's deed of sale, goes to the government to cancel his slave status, and makes him a common man from now on.

In "Dream of Red Mansions", the plot of buying and selling slaves and maids has been mentioned several times, and the most valuable maid in the book is Yanhong, a 17-year-old girl who was bought to Jia Yu as an aunt, and is worth 800 taels**. According to the purchasing power of silver taels in the Qing Dynasty, one tael of silver was equivalent to 800-1,000 yuan, so Jia Yu spent a total of 6,700,000 yuan to buy Yanhong.

At that time, an ordinary maid was worth about 20 taels, so the minimum was 16,000 yuan, and even the most common maids, according to the price of 6 taels, had to be at least 5,000 yuan to buy it back.

signed the deed of sale, as long as the owner does not agree, then the subordinate is also inferior to the next person until death, and there is no possibility of turning over at all. Although, on the surface, it seems that the master has paid a lot of price, but in fact, after buying the next person, they are all going to let them work, and the rest of their lives are only worth these few dollars for decades, no matter how they are calculated, they are all losses.

Therefore, the market value of servants in their 10-30s is relatively low, and in it, men who do rough work are relatively cheap because they can be found everywhere, and those young and beautiful women, if they have some special talents, will often rise and cannot be generalized.

It takes 20 taels, that is, 500 yuan, which is still quite worthless, and most of the servants were originally slaves and were worthless, and someone sold them for almost 20 taels.

In ancient times, people could be bought and sold, and servants were also classified as commodities, and the grades were different. Ordinary family members come to do coolies, just a few taels of **, in ancient times, a tael of silver is equivalent to 1,750 yuan now, and it is about 10,000 taels of silver to buy a servant.

The ancients bought a servant's **, ordinary slaves are only worth one tael of silver, if it is a good-looking slave or a strong labor force, it may be worth five taels or even more, and one tael of silver in ancient times is about 267 yuan!