What was happening in the southern seas of the Kandla Empire several thousand kilometers away didn't affect the Principality of Constantine and the New Flyer.
Recently, the most eye-catching matter in the Statin Duchy, and even in the surrounding countries, was a bill being passed by the parliament of the Principality of Constantine.
This bill was proposed by the chairman of the New Flyer, Xu Yi, as an ordinary member of parliament.
With Xu Yi's unparalleled influence in the Principality of Constantine, any proposal should have been easily passed, but this proposal had taken two whole months to enter the parliament's final discussion process. Moreover, it had to go through a public vote of the parliament before it could take effect.
The reason why this proposal was so difficult was because the contents of the proposal were just too shocking.
The contents of this proposal was actually to abolish the slavery system!
When Xu Yi first proposed this proposal, everyone thought that he was crazy.
Ever since the elves had ruled the continent several thousand years ago, the slavery system had always existed on the continent. Until now, the history of slavery had already surpassed ten thousand years.
In these tens of thousands of years, no matter how the continent changed, the slavery system had never changed. In fact, in the two thousand years before and after the racial war, the slavery system had reached its peak.
Before the race wars, the elves had treated all other races as slaves. After the race wars, it was the humans who had crazily captured other races as slaves.
As for the humans themselves, they would also take large amounts of their own race as slaves.
For the people of the Sines, the existence of slaves was something that everyone was used to. No one felt that there was anything wrong with it.
Now that Xu Yi had suddenly come out and said that he wanted to abolish the slavery system, this was simply challenging everyone's common sense, challenging the tacit rules of the continent.
In particular, the slave owners who had obtained many benefits from the slaves snorted at Xu Yi's proposal and strongly opposed it.
Originally, because of the New Flyer's enormous influence in the Principality of Constantine, all the nobles in the duchy could only obediently cooperate and didn't dare oppose any of Xu Yi's proposals.
But when Xu Yi threw out this proposal, these nobles who had always obediently followed Xu Yi's arrangements actually voiced their opposition to this proposal in unison.
In the first vote on this proposal, the number of votes in favor of this proposal was actually a shocking zero!
From this, it could be seen how big of an impact this proposal had on everyone, and how strong the opposition was.
However, with the New Flyer's great influence in the Principality of Constantine and Xu Yi's strong push, this proposal slowly gained more and more votes, and it finally entered the final discussion process.
And today was the day that the Stantine Duchy's parliament would be discussing this proposal.
As long as this proposal passed today, it meant that the Principality of Constantine would truly abolish the slavery system from today onwards.
According to incomplete statistics, the number of slaves in the Principality of Constantine now totaled between one hundred and sixty thousand to one hundred and seventy thousand.
Once the slavery system was abolished, these one hundred and sixty thousand slaves would become ordinary citizens, and the social impact would undoubtedly be enormous.
Therefore, whether this proposal passed or not could be said to cause the entire Principality of Constantine to fall into great turmoil.
In the eyes of many, this wasn't a good thing.
"Why would I strongly advocate for the abolition of the slavery system?" Xu Yi smiled as he looked at Baron Hannas, who was sitting opposite him, and slowly shook his head.
"Of course it's not because I'm like a saint and can't bear to see the slaves suffer, so I want to abolish this system and free them."
"You can't completely deny this point, can you?
Based on your attitude towards the slaves under you, it can be seen that you have a very gentle attitude towards them. "Baron Hannas kept asking.
Although today was the day that the Principality of Constantine's congress would discuss Xu Yi's proposal to abolish the slavery system, because this matter attracted too much attention, the surrounding countries had sent people to pay attention to this matter. There were countless newspapers that focused on this matter, intending to report on it.
The congress' final discussion would begin in the afternoon, so in the morning, Xu Yi held a press conference and accepted questions from the various newspapers.
At this press conference, there were reporters from the Lampari Kingdom, the Kingdom of Ruhr, the Drake Duchy, the Mirando Duchy, the Norton Duchy ….. and all the surrounding countries. Even the Sack Kingdom had sent three newspapers to report on this matter.
There were over five hundred reporters, filling the hall that could be considered spacious and there was no place to stand.
The reporters were all well-informed people, so naturally they knew that Xu Yi had a deep friendship with the « Lampuri Weekly »'s editor in chief Baron Hannas, so the first question was given to him.
"From my personal point of view, I really don't want to see the slaves being treated this cruelly.
Because to me, there isn't a difference between slaves and commoners. Everyone is the same human, so why should we separate them and treat them cruelly like animals? "Xu Yi said with a serious look.
"But other than humans, there are many other races among the slaves. Could it be that you want to treat them like humans?" A reporter suddenly asked in a loud voice.
The other reporters all turned to look at the reporter who asked the question, thinking that this fellow was an idiot.
It was a bit interesting to ask this question to other people, but asking this question to Xu Yi was a complete waste of time.
As expected, Xu Yi gave a faint smile and replied, "The other races aren't that different from humans, right?
Our Frestech Chamber of Commerce has hired many people from other races over the years, but I haven't seen anything different from us humans.
If there really is something, it's probably that there are differences in culture.
But even among us humans, aren't there differences in culture because of different ethnic regions?
So I don't think this is a problem. "
"Chairman Xu, let's return to the main topic.
You just said that you want to abolish slavery from a personal point of view.
But you are the New Flyer's chairman after all, you are someone that everyone knows has a strong influence. For you to raise this proposal, it's impossible that it's completely from your personal point of view, right? "Another reporter asked.
"Of course." Xu Yi didn't hesitate at all as he nodded in acknowledgment.
"Of course this proposal is also from my overall point of view."
"Chairman Xu, I am a reporter from the Kingdom of Ruhr.
Before I came here, I heard a piece of news.
In our Kingdom of Ruhr, there is a Chamber of Commerce that specializes in making magic lamps. Because they use all slave workers, the cost of the magic lamps they produce is lower, and the price is much lower than your Xinfei brand magic lamps. They are very popular in our Kingdom of Ruhr.
You are now proposing to abolish slavery, is it because you feel threatened by this Chamber of Commerce? "Another reporter in the crowd asked loudly.
The expressions of all the reporters in the audience changed.
This was the first time many of them heard this news. If this was true, then the reason Xu Yi proposed this proposal was intriguing.
Xu Yi glanced at the reporter and asked, "You are talking about the Sanchi Chamber of Commerce in Rio City, right?"
The reporter stared blankly for a moment and didn't answer. Obviously, he agreed.
Xu Yi smiled and continued, "First of all, my proposal is only aimed at the Principality of Constantine. Even if this proposal is passed, it won't affect the Kingdom of Ruhr. If the Sanchi Chamber of Commerce wants to continue using slave workers, there will be no problem. It won't be affected in any way."
The audience nodded in unison.
The Principality of Constantine was actually only a small country. It was far from being comparable to the Kingdom of Ruhr.
If it wasn't for the New Flyer being here and this proposal being too shocking, perhaps not many people would pay much attention to the policies of such a small country.
"Secondly, the magic lamps produced by the Sanchi Chamber of Commerce did not pass the quality inspection of the Kingdom of Ruhr's Magic Industry Management Department, but they chose to sell them privately. This is a serious violation of the Kingdom of Ruhr's Magic Industry Management Department's regulations. Now they are under investigation by the Kingdom of Ruhr's Magic Industry Management Department. They have been ordered to close down for rectification. Are you aware of this?"
Everyone's eyes fell on the face of the reporter who claimed to be from the Kingdom of Ruhr. They found that his expression was a little awkward.
It was obvious that he knew about this matter, but chose not to say it on purpose.
"Lastly, why would you think that I would see the magic lamps produced by such a chamber of commerce as a threat?
I think … none of the reporters here would think that this Sanchi Chamber of Commerce would be a threat to our New Flyer, right? "
The audience couldn't help but nod in unison.
They had never heard of this Sanchi Chamber of Commerce. How could they compare to New Flyer?
This guy actually thought that Xu Yi felt that the Sanchi Chamber of Commerce was a threat to New Flyer. What a joke!
The reporter's face flushed red, and he shouted in defiance, "Chairman Xu, perhaps the Sanchi Chamber of Commerce isn't a threat to your New Flyer, but you must be afraid that other chambers of commerce will use slave workers to reduce costs and compete with your New Flyer, right?
You want to abolish slavery so much, it must be because you expected this situation! "
The other reporters in the audience fell silent.
In fact, this was also the doubt in their hearts.
If it wasn't for New Flyer's perspective, why would Xu Yi insist on doing such a thankless job, spending so much effort, and facing so many people's opposition to abolish slavery?
"Perhaps you're right, this is indeed a problem.
But I must remind you of a fact. It's not just now. Even a few years ago, many chambers of commerce also used slave workers, but they didn't have any special advantages because of this. Do you understand why? "Xu Yi asked.
Everyone looked at each other, and they felt that Xu Yi's question didn't make sense at first, but in fact, it was very worthy of deep thought.
That's right, slaves didn't just exist on the Sines Continent for a day or two.
Now, a lot of chambers of commerce that produced magic machines had popped up in the surrounding countries, and many of them used large amounts of slave workers to reduce production costs, but this didn't give them much of an advantage.
This wasn't aimed at New Flyer, because in the magic machine industry, there was currently no chamber of commerce that could be compared to New Flyer.
It was just that compared to other chambers of commerce in the same industry, the chambers of commerce that used slaves didn't have any special advantages.
"This is the biggest reason why I want to abolish slavery, and also the conclusion I came to after considering the whole situation.
The reason is actually very simple. In my opinion, the majority of slaves can't be considered a complete labor force. "
"Because slaves generally can't receive education, and they don't have any enthusiasm or initiative. Even if they participate in production, they are in a completely passive position.
In actual production, not only will these kinds of workers not reduce production costs, but in fact, it will greatly affect production efficiency and product quality. "
"From a merchant's point of view, these slave workers are a negative asset of the chamber of commerce.
What I want to do now is to turn these negative assets into positive assets! "