DIVIDE

The supervisor began explaining. He was a relative to one of the officials incharge of overlooking the agricultural yield within the kingdom. As the official was influential, he had placed him in charge of the group of worker. As he had been unable to inherit his family fortune, his mother who loved him enough to plead her brother, the official, to place him in a better position.

According to his tone, this was not a shameful thing but rather showed the prestige his family carried. The workers were one of the lowest members of the society and due to his upbringing he had treated them as such without showing any respect. The workers were also illiterate, so they had no idea about the complexities of the amount of money being paid to the supervisor and the money being being paid to them as salaries.

The next matter that he discussed was the wages for the workers. He explained that he as the supervisor would directly receive the payment that is agreed upon for by the higher ups. He will then distribute the wages to the workers as per the discussed upon rates.

Judging by the vague answers he was giving regarding the payment process and amount, I understood that he did not wish to disclose the huge disparity between the amount of money he was receiving and the amount of money he was promising the workers. It was very clear to me that he was gaining a huge profit from this trade and that the official behind him was surely getting a huge cut.

It was not a huge scam or such and the official was not like some corrupt official who had been plotting against the kingdom. This was just the way the officials did their work. Most of the profit-making businesses in the kingdom were under one or the other official and they delegated the day-to-day workings of the business to someone in their family. The prestige of the business was directly related to the relative being placed in-charge.

I gestured for the workers to wait outside while I finish my conversation with the supervisor. After seeing that the workers were gone, the supervisor spoke about the actual numbers. I was shocked to hear them.

According to the agreement that was normal for a such a large group of able bodies workers, the monthly wage paid by the employer to the supervisor was four silvers a month per worker. This roughly translated to forty gold per month and around five hundred gold for the year. This was a healthy amount of wage if it reached the workers.

Considering the current economy of the kingdom this was an enough for a worker to support his family comfortably for a whole month. The prices of basic food ingredients were in coppers and every silver was equal to a hundred coppers. The four silvers would equate to four hundred coppers, this would give the family enough to fill their rations for the month and have spare that they can save for a rainy day, like the off-season or when a disaster strikes or war is declared.

But this was not the case. The amount specified was what the employer paid to the supervisor, the actual amount that reached the workers was somewhere around only one silver. One hundred coppers were not enough for a worker to support a family of four for a month. This will then lead to accumulation of debts by the worker and create a vicious cycle which would leave them unable to pursue something more.

This was a type of fail-safe method perfected over time to keep financial disparity between the rich and the poor. It was based on the mindset that if they are busy worrying about providing basic food and shelter for their family all their lives, they will not pose any threat to their superiors and the superiors will maintain their lavish lifestyles.

If I followed the set precedent, then the supervisor and the official will gain close to four hundred gold for no effort on their part, and the workers who would work tirelessly would only receive hundred gold divided among a thousand people. I gave my nod to the supervisor indicating that I understood the mechanics and ordered him to wait outside while I speak with the ten workers that he had brought.

He bowed politely and left. I turned my attention to the captain standing beside me and asked him to ready a soldier to be dispatched to the workers tents and escort the names I will be giving him in a short time. He left to make the arrangements.

The ten workers once again came back into the hall without the supervisor.

I directly began by asking them to truthfully tell me if there was no one else in the workers camp who had more prestige than the ten standing here, be it a man or a woman. I emphasized once again that my soldiers are speaking with the people of the camp as we speak and if their report differed from what they will tell me now then I will hold them accountable and dish out punishments as I see fit.

The warning seemed to scare them enough and a worker who seemed to be the leader, walked a bit to the front, bent down on both knees and spoke. He informed me that there were three women in the group who were better suited to be among them, but the supervisor ordered them to only nominate men to meet the prince. He also truthfully confessed that one woman, named Adishri had the most prestige in the group and even he would be willing to follow her orders.

I was not surprised at the fact that a woman was the best among them, but rather on the fact that the man in front of me was actually willing to admit it. I began to highly appreciate both him and the women I had yet to meet. I finally asked for his name and he responded by saying Bhima.

He then informed me the names of the other two women and I conveyed it to the captain who went on to carry forward the task I had given. I felt that this will be the end of the conversation seeing as we will have to wait for the women to carry it forward, but the workers had something else in mind.

Three of the ten stepped forward and then got on their knees explaining that the women should be taking their place in the meeting as they were selected just because they were men. I think they felt that I would be pleased and allow them to stay, but I was not about to do it. I already had plans when I called for only ten among the group of over thousand workers, so I responded with a nod and asked them to leave. They were somewhat sad and left with their heads down.