| I’ve got more; take a prov. 4 - ~10,000 pop right? Well, if the
| nobility = ~10% of a feudal society, that’s about 1000 people right?
| Say that pop figure only represents the ‘labour force’ (ie the ‘taxable’
| workforce, which is to say the adult population that contributes to the
| public coffers), then that means approx. 5 units of knights ought to be
| able to be supported in that province (or thereabouts). But as things
| stand know, at best a prov 4 will only make about 5 GBs per turn. This
| means only ~2.5 knight units can be supported, and that’s it! No other
| military units can be supported!
Try more like 1% of the people being nobles. Assuming a population of 10,000
people, and taxable at that, you must ask what the taxes are. Now, let us
dispose of the D&D myth that every peasant has a few dozen gold coins,
completely ignore all the stuff ever written in D&D modules as well, because it
all assumes everyone is fricking rich. I don’t know how, considering the
“average wages” in the DMG, but what the hell, right? Now, taxes are the only
revunue a feudal structure of government has. Further, the citizens are not
represented. The leaders can do whatever the hell they want with the taxes.
These citizens are probably expected to give away the following: 10% to
god(s), 60% to live, and the other 30% to the government. Probably that
taxation is not too excessive. Their taxes will not be paid in gold coin, but
in goods and services. In fact, a single gold coin should be a treasure.
Therefore, the average taxation of 6,000 gold coins every three months is not
that far off base. Now you history buffs out there can probably find some fact
some where to knock this whole thing off kilter, but I really don’t know that
it matters. We’re playing games, not studying Medieval Ethics and Economics
301.
I don’t see where the bullshit is coming from, except the cows in the field. A
knight is a member of the nobility. We have no printed reference that I am
aware of in BR that indicates that members of the common classes can attain
that status. So your availability is pretty low to begin with anyhow. Now, I
want you to look at the cost of armor and weapons as noted in the PHB. These,
while not precisely historically accurate, serve as a good reference. Go
through and build the “kit” for a knight. His armor, shield, weapons, mount,
etc. When you run up the tab it’s pretty big. No ruler could pay all that, so
the knight must “come equipped”. That means he MUST be a noble or of the
middle merchant class, no one else can afford the gear and mount.
| To top it off, taking a guild regent in the same province, he can make
| around ~15 GBs with holdings & trade routes (~20GBs if its coastal).
| FOUR times as much money as the leader of the land?!? In a feudal
| culture?!?
Doesn’t the leader tax his merchants? The money is certainly excessive, but
the biggest problem here, and I see it in every BR game I play, is that the
various player rulers and the DM running the NPC is too much of a lame wuss to
demand his due taxes from the merchants. Look at our own “enlightened
democracy” (yah, right). Go ask your local game shop owner how much he/she
pays in quarterly taxes to the US government. It is really, really excessive.
Typical example:
Maximus Rulisterius the Thief runs the trading operations in Roesone like it’s
nobody else’s business, cause it ain’t. He has three trade routes out of
Proudglaive that go to Imperial City, Avanil, and Diemed. Because Diem and
Avan are good guys, they aren’t chargin Maximus a bloody red cent for making
scounds of money in their domains of their people, and the ruler of Roesone
just doesn’t feel like possibly angering Maximus, so she lets him get away with
his business practices. As a result, Maximus makes lots of money.
The way it should be:
Max has a thing for governments, the damn bat rastards charge so much money
that you can’t be expected to make a bloody cent anymore… First off, Darien
Avan killed his contract last month because someone else made a better offer,
or so the missive said, then that jerk in Diemed increased his import taxes for
some reasone or another, probably more like he doesn’t like Marlae or
something. It really sucks doing business between old enemies. Maybe he could
trade with Aerenwe, but… well, he doesn’t want to give away that much and the
scoundrels over there are really expensive. On top of all of this, Marlae’s
tariffs just aren’t fair! 20% is so bloody much! Doesn’t she understand that
Max is trying to run a business!? Who cares about “troop levies” and such, why
can’t she get those bloody roads fixed between here and Ilien…
I’ve snipped the ideas for the reorganization of trade. I guess it’s good
stuff, but I personally see that the existing trade rules work just fine, that
is if the landed regents tax everyone, not just their citizens.
Considering my story example above, Marlae Roseone should have a standard
import tariff of at least 15%, therefore, any trade route that has an end in
her territory is taxed by that much. Further, any guilder seeking to use her
roads between, say, Ilien and Aerenwe, she should tax as well, perhaps a “road
use tax”, perhaps 10%. Therefore, the trade route between Ilien and
Proudglaive, which earns 6 GB, winds up giving her 1 GB, every month. Rogr
Aglondier is probably doing the same thing, and that route nets him a further
1GB every month. That leaves either Orthien Tane or El-Hadid with 4GB. Over
all, that is a whopping 30% loss. Acceptable cost of doing business.
Now, Assuming the master or the route is Orthien Tane, whoe doesn’t get on well
with Marlae anyhow, he is probably paying a few cents to simply have the right
of doing business there. Yes, the right. Remember that in a feudal society,
no individual has rights. Rights and privileges are given from god to the
ruler to the populace, similar to the arrangement in the UK. For residents of
non-parlimentry democracies (like the US) this seems quite odd. Marlae, if
she’s smart, charges Orthien a flat tax of 1GB per quarter per province in
which he has trade interests, whether or not he make money that domain turn.
Finally, lets not forget Marlae’s export tariffs. She will probably charge
about 10% to 20% depending on the goods. If the goods are reported as weapons,
weell, then, that tax should probably increase, because she doens’t want
potential enemies to have weapons from Ghaelen Forge now, does she?
All things considered, after this incredibly long spiel, any regent that
doesn’t come up with creative ways to tax their business partners should be
overthrown, he deserves it. Compared to the Columbus statement and the
exploratory trade venue there, well, he went to her because he didn’t have
enough money to do that trade venue, kind of like a guilder regent with a
single holding in one province. Considering that Cerilia is about as big as
Australia, Spain could easily house at least 30 provinces (probably alot more),
with no single massive trade organization in the early 1500s.
Happy Tax Time!
Tim Nutting
zero@wiredweb.com
