Some were radical, making the concubines take a pill to sterilize. Cutting the risk of having children and paying more taxes, which was cruel to the woman and to minimize the damage to the clans' spirits, they were usually very generous in the dowries they gave in marriage, a lot of silver, fabrics and food, which made the clans made the marriage of their daughters a highly profitable trade.
This medicine was banned from sale, as the government wanted more people to be born as the birth rate was still not ideal, and they ran the risk of not having young people for the future. So getting the drugs required connections and money, despite all the government oversight, there would still be cases of women becoming suddenly ill and doctors having to call Yamen due to the sterilization drugs given in high dosages, and it affected the health of the woman.
Yes, doctors were obliged to report these cases to Yamen. Doctors had to send the names of patients who were treated exclusively by them to the Guild of Physicians, as far as they were concerned, these were sent to the civil ministry.
In summary, if the women of a family that the doctors were treating died of "mysterious" causes, the doctor could receive a penalty if it is proved that it was due to poison of the abortive medicine, and could even lose his medical license or even be arrested.
If the husband is caught doing this with the concubine, he will have to pay a high penalty, if the concubine is barren the penalty is doubled and the husband's family has to pay a pension to the wife for the rest of her life.
It was still difficult for men to understand that women and children would be treated like gold by the new ruler to rebuild the country after the war.
It can be said that the Kingdom of Izary made a social advance by adding a pension for the concubine when the husband died (if old) and compensation if the husband died young, so that the concubine if she has no children could leave and get married again.
The government was very keen that every man should be able to have at least one wife, there was a direct increase in the law against domestic violence and a woman can get divorced due to abuse and violence to marry another family even if she had a son, as there were still many men without wives.
Unfortunately, the children would stay with the husband's family after the divorce, which made women reluctant to leave each year.
The last few years in the Izary Kingdom saw many changes that frightened the small clans who depended on the marriage of their daughters in the cities and wanted to marry the girls off to rich men who would provide a valuable dowry for the clan and raise the family's position within the clan.
But there were so many rules and laws that the clans were afraid of being condemned by the government if their daughters ended up being caught in any of these laws, yes, they were somewhat ignorant, since most of the clans stayed away from government affairs.
As for the children of rich merchants, this was a headache, as commerce was the way to have power, but with the concubine having part of the family business, the power was divided, since the bastard children were now entitled to part of the business, be it the real value or having one of the companies.
If the concubine or the wife worked in the business of the nobles, or the merchants, they would be entitled to part of the business after the husbands died or divorced, of course, there would be transfer and inheritance taxes, which filled the public coffers.
One can imagine the bloody war between the stepchildren and the concubines for power, not to mention that the concubines could adopt children (there were many orphaned children and the orphanages funded by the government and some nobles were not enough, so the adoption of these widowed women were important) and make them disciples, which would configure a sponsorship and making sure that these new children will be entitled to the profits and to inherit the concubine's assets when they die, leading to a new bloody war between the disciples and the merchant's heirs.
Of course, the biggest winner of the fight is the State, as taxes are almost doubled in the middle of the battle, as collateral damage there shouldn't be so many more men with concubines, right?
On the contrary, men having more than one wife was not just a matter of lust or heirs, but of position, as it proved how wealthy and capable they were. So, unless wealth comes in old age, many men who become rich early have more than one wife.
For the small Clans who lived on the borders of the Kingdom of Izary and were afraid of the new laws and confused about what the future of the daughters of the clans would be like, fortunately, the nobles and rich merchants still went in search of concubines, but now they were more demanding for women, which led the clans to provide compulsory education for women who would be married to townspeople in the future.
The luckiest would marry as the main wife of small merchants and have a good life, the unluckiest would marry as the concubine of a rich merchant and take the medicine to be sterilized.
There were many nuances about the concubine inheriting part of the business, but not all concubines worked in the husband's business, about two thirds did, and the other part was supported by the husband and then the stepchildren, if you're lucky the stepchildren can forget her existence and receive the pension money in silence, if she has bad luck and the grudge of her stepchildren she can become "sick" and die soon after her husband.
However, this was all for the Kingdom of Izary to see in the future.