| Peter Knutsen |
11-29-2014 01:14 AM |
Re: Alt.history - What trade could Europe and China have in the middle ages?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor
(Post 1841847)
I remember on Emperor of the Sea a scene where one Korean merchant chieftainess is personally acting as a creepily Affably Evil sort of schoolmarm to children being groomed to be concubines for Chinese nobles. To be far that is not quite the same as selling children to a street brothel if one wishes to make distinctions and it might even be a more comfortable life then a peasant girl would have.
|
Indeed, ending up the bed-slave of a high-status man is a form of social mobility.
Although from a certain perspective, it's important whether the move is for life, or only for half a decade or so until the woman's owner thinks she's gotten too old - what happens to her then?
Some bed-slave owners might set their slaves free with a parting gift, a reward for "good behaviour" and so that she can have a decent life and support the owner's bastard children, but many can't afford that, or can but aren't sufficiently satisfied with the slave's apparent level of fidelity (or use that as an excuse anyway even though she has been "good"). All that is common behaviour (manumission, and giving the reward, or withholding it with cause or without) for upper class gentlemen in my Ärth historical fantasy setting.
Ending up the concubine of a King or Emperor, though, is likely a move for life. He'll have the resources to not need to manumit those he's no longer interested in, and won't have to demote then to kitchen work because he can afford to maintain his idle ex-concubines. |