Chapter 598: On Dowry
Speaking of this incident, it did cause a lot of laughter among people in Shenjing.
First of all, Baochai is the eldest daughter of the Xue family. More importantly, the family wants to rely on that good son-in-law in the future. Therefore, Aunt Xue was very strict about the dowry.
First, Wang Ziteng came forward and had a brief discussion with Lin Ruhai. Finally, they agreed that both families should prepare 128 loads of dowry.
In fact, there were strict requirements on the amount of dowry in the early days.
The Zhou Li clearly stipulates that for marrying a son or marrying a wife, the money to be paid must not exceed five taels of pure silk. The five taels here does not refer to silver, but to five pieces of black silk. In other words, whether it is a betrothal gift or a dowry, it cannot exceed the value of five pieces of black silk .
Starting in the Han Dynasty, it's unclear who initiated the internal competition for daughters. To protect their daughters from discrimination and neglect upon entering their husband's family, the woman's family would practically spend all their wealth on dowries. There was a saying at the time, "Thieves are no match for a daughter with five daughters." This meant that if a family had five daughters and provided them with dowries, even robbers would be too lazy to .
During the Zhao Song Dynasty, the purchase of dowries became even more crazy.
There was a record that when a middle-class official married off his daughter, the dowry included thousands of acres of fertile land, tens of thousands of strings of silver, etc. Therefore, getting rich by marrying a daughter-in-law was not a pipe dream in ancient times.
The reason why such a strange inheritance has been formed is precisely because of the special nature of the dowry.
Every dynasty clearly stipulated that a dowry was a woman's private property—in other words, her premarital assets—and that the man had no right to claim or spend them. If the couple divorced or the woman remarried, the dowry would go with her. If the husband's family appropriated the woman's dowry, it was considered an extremely serious offense, one that could not be won in court.
If the woman has children, then the dowry will naturally be inherited by her children. If she has no children, the husband's family will return the dowry to her parents' family according to the dowry list, and the parents' family will distribute and inherit it. Therefore, under normal circumstances, the dowry for a daughter will not fall into the hands of others.
Take the Lin family, for example. When Jia Min married Lin Ruhai, she also received a dowry of 128 pieces of luggage. Lin Ruhai and his wife only had one daughter, Daiyu, so all the dowry went to Daiyu. So, while Lin Ruhai was certainly a noble family, Daiyu was definitely a wealthy woman.
The amount of the dowry wasn't arbitrary; it was determined by the status of both the bride and groom. Generally speaking, most officials could use a dowry of up to 64 full pallets, while Jia Cong, a first-class marquis, could use up to 128 pallets. Ordinary families could even use a half-dovey of 32 pallets.
Moreover, even if the dowry is the same, weighing 64 loads, there are huge differences.
Normally, a dowry consisted of a set of items, such as a pair of bracelets, a piece of cloth, a set of head ornaments, etc., not a complete box. If more than a hundred boxes of gold, silver, and jewelry were to be packed, even the royal family would probably not be able to handle it.
In order to look good, ordinary families would try to put together as many items as possible. However, most of the items were just for show and were not worth much silver in total. However, the Xue family and the Lin family were different.
To prepare a dowry for her daughter, Aunt Xue gathered nearly 200,000 taels of silver and sent merchants from all over the country to buy all sorts of rare and precious items. As long as it was permitted by regulations and could be purchased with money, she bought everything. Others might only need one pair of bracelets, but since we had so many things, two or even three pairs wouldn't be too much, right?
In addition to these things, Aunt Xue separated out nearly 30% of the family's assets, including shops, land, and paperwork, and put them all into the dowry.
It is no exaggeration to say that the dowry that the Xue family prepared for Baochai was worth at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.
Xue Dabo didn't have any objections to this matter. Although he was not very reasonable, he was attentive to his sister. Most importantly, although he was a spendthrift, he had no idea about money. In his opinion, with so many businesses at home, he would have to spend money on food and drink. Besides, it was not given to others, but to his sister, so why would he be dissatisfied?
Lin Ruhai is just as good as Aunt Xue.
He only has one precious daughter. Isn't all his wealth hers? Why keep it? When he gets old, will that bastard dare not take care of him?
The Lin family is a family of four generations of nobles. While Lin Ruhai's family fortune suffered considerable losses during his time as an official, they still maintain a solid foundation. Furthermore, Lin Ruhai served as the Imperial Inspector of Salt for many years. Although he was also a nobleman, he also earned a considerable amount of legitimate income. Therefore, the Lin family's wealth is unmatched by ordinary people.
First, he gathered all of Jia Min's dowry and put it into Daiyu's dowry. Then, Lin Ruhai asked his colleagues, peers, and fellow townsmen to go shopping for it. After a while, perhaps because his daughter-serving mentality had been discovered, he became almost addicted to it.
Sometimes I would suddenly think of something and would have to go through the original dowry list again.
When he met colleagues to chat in the past, they mostly talked about state affairs, but now, Lin Ruhai was excited to show off his achievements everywhere!
The entire Ministry of Revenue, from Shangshu Shu Yuze to the lower officials working under him, a group of men, now all learned how to prepare dowries for their daughters...
To exaggerate a bit, because the Xue and Lin families had poured so much money into the dowry, the prices of corresponding items in Shenjing City had risen significantly. This joyous event had become a laughing stock among the civil and military officials in the court. Now, facing Lin Ruhai, he asked directly, "Ruhai, have you added any new dowry recently?"
Just this one sentence was enough to pique Lin Ruhai's interest, and then he would drag him to talk for a long time...
So, not to mention that Jia Cong is worth a lot of money now, even if he is penniless now, once two rich young women marry into his family, Jia Cong will be able to directly benefit from it and be promoted to the ranks of the top rich people in the entire Shenjing.
Listening to Xiangyun's words, Daiyu raised the corner of her mouth, "What's the matter, Yun girl, are you anxious too? The two aunts of the Shi family said before that the Shi family has made a lot of money in the past two years. I think when Yun girl gets married, the two aunts will prepare a very generous dowry for you."
Daiyu is no longer the same person she was before. If someone had mentioned this before, she would have run away in shame. But now, she has already exchanged gifts with her third brother. If she ran away in shame, wouldn't she be laughed at by her sisters? So, facing Xiangyun's teasing, Daiyu felt shy in her heart, but her expression did not change.
"Miss Lin, I'm going to beat you until your mouth is broken!" Xiangyun was filled with shame and anger. She didn't want to get married. If she really got married, wouldn't she become estranged from her sisters and third brother in the future?
