Roland chatted with his father until late at night before saying goodbye. When I left the study, I felt hungry, but my spirit was extremely high.

Under his persuasion, His Majesty the King had made up his mind to take advantage of the fact that the Kolas regime was now gaining prestige in the eyes of the people, and to solve the problem of the land system in the Far East once and for all, by means of a quick sword!

With the full support of the Minister of Agriculture and His Majesty the King, there is no suspense that the land reform proposal will be approved by the cabinet, and the next step is to establish a supporting legal system for the implementation of land reform......

"It's time to talk to Mr. Maynard."

……

It has been less than four months since the establishment of the government of Colasburg in the Far East, but the citizens of Krasbourg have already felt first-hand the many differences between this new regime and the imperial government of the provincial era in terms of governing style, and if there is one of the most distinctive features, most people will give the same answer - efficiency!

The young government of Kolas was like an energetic and motivated youth, and all the branches of the government were running at a much more efficient pace than in the days of the Empire. For example, Roland proposed the idea of legislating to promote land reform at noon on January 7 at a lunch with Justice Secretary Maynard, and on the afternoon of January 7, Parliament passed the land reform bill to clear the institutional obstacles to legislation.

Not only the Ministry of Justice, but also the Koras government, from the cabinet to the lowest level of clerks, are in a state of almost excitement, working selflessly with a "time is not waiting for me, seize the day" mentality. Although it is inevitable that too much attention to efficiency will lead to mistakes in busyness, but on the whole, efficient work has also brought good reputation and popular support to the government.

Perhaps considering that the introduction of two bills in just one week would inevitably give the impression of being too rash, Maynard specially added a bracketed (provisional version) - label after the title of the bill, meaning that the matter is urgent, and the plan will be implemented first, and the omissions found in the implementation process will be made up for in the form of "amendments".

Maynard's proposal was unanimously approved at the Cabinet meeting, and His Majesty Rudolph felt from the bottom of his heartfelt sense of how wise his son had been in the first place to resolutely oppose the establishment of a parliamentary party in the Far East, otherwise the two proposals would have been delayed for three or five months to be adopted, at least, and their implementation would have been far away.

The first bill that Maynard submitted was a bombshell.

As soon as the Act was enacted, all slavery and serfdom deprivation of personal liberty would be abolished in the Kingdom of Kolas in the Far East, and all forms of slave trade and adoption of children without the authorization of their guardians would be prohibited.

Existing serfs could voluntarily become employees of local state-owned farms, and state-owned farms would pay a certain amount of compensation to their original owners when they signed a long-term employment contract with them. Of course, the standard of compensation was set by the government, and frankly much cheaper than the serf's deed of sale, and this little compensation was mainly symbolic - showing that the government of Kolas was reasonable. But how much is it worth? Of course, the government has the final say. If the landlords refuse to comply with the law, then they will be punished by the government's iron fist.

The first industrialized countries, such as Fizhen and Hailan, abolished serfdom as early as the last century, but due to the hijacking of industrial and commercial capital, the government was slow to pass a bill to prohibit the slave trade, and there was no shortage of barbarian slaves who were forced to work on the large farms and plantations in the domestic and overseas colonies. In the eyes of the Fijin and Hailan, the barbarians were not considered citizens of the country, and the abolition of slavery did not apply to them.

The Kingdom of Kolas was not the first country in Varess to abolish serfdom, but it was the first to legislate for the complete abolition of slavery in all its forms and the slave trade, which was also controversial in the Cabinet meeting. The Minister of Industry, Zinovi, did not think it was a good idea to prohibit the slave trade, and that the use of slaves for dangerous and arduous work such as digging mines would be much cheaper than hiring free labour, so that industrial goods would gain a comparative advantage in cost and be conducive to export competition.

Roland resolutely pushed back against this argument. It is pointed out that because slaves have lost their personal freedom and cannot get reasonable remuneration through labor, they must lack enthusiasm for work, and they are unlikely to have the motivation to take the initiative to improve work efficiency, not to mention learning new technologies and operating complex machines, and can only engage in some simple and inefficient work under the drive of the whip, and the industrialization of a country can never be achieved by these slaves who lack initiative and creativity, what is really needed is those who are willing to accept vocational and technical training, willing to use their own brains to improve work efficiency, High-quality workers who improve machines to save manpower are the backbone and hope of the country's industrialization.

On the other hand, the poor living conditions made slaves susceptible to infectious diseases, short-lived and often revolted in despair, and the moral hazard and actual administrative costs were much higher than those of free labor, and if we also take into account the cost of "labor depreciation", we will find that the use of slaves is not much cheaper than that of wage workers.

Finally, Roland emphasized that the greatest harm of slavery to the national economy was that it squeezed the opportunities for free people to get work. If all factories and farms used slaves who at first glance did not appear to be paid extra and could be raised as livestock, what would happen to the hired workers who work in factories and farms today? They were either forced to accept the same treatment as slaves or were forced to lose their jobs, which would undoubtedly provoke social contradictions and cause irreparable tears in the newly established family of Far Eastern peoples.

Roland's rebuttal left Zinovi speechless. The Minister of Industry, nicknamed "The Old Goat" and "The Iron Rooster", was also quite a gentleman, and in front of His Majesty the King and his cabinet colleagues, he calmly admitted to His Royal Highness the Prince, admitting that he had not thought it through.

This petty conflict ended in consensus, which improved Roland's opinion of the Secretary of Industry. He has always had a relatively cold relationship with Zinovi, this old man is a competent minister of industry, but outside of work, his ruthlessness and greed are also well-known in the capital's industrial and commercial circles, and the murderous behavior of hiring thugs to bloodily suppress strikes in his own factories, killing and injuring dozens of people has made his character widely questioned by all walks of life, and the Kolas authorities have also endured considerable pressure from public opinion to reuse such a controversial "tycoon". Roland also said to his father privately - I only hope that the "old goat" can work peacefully until retirement, but don't make any big news such as "tricking the strike leader into negotiating and killing him with his own hands".