>>Which tells you something about tax rates in Sartar. The taxes in
>>Scotland were, I believe, regarded as Too High (by those paying them).
Taxes are *always* Too High to those who pay them. This is especially the case when a new or additional tax is introduced. Bear in mind that Scotland also had rents and compulsory tithes which don't apply in Sartar.
>But the Heortlings do have more cattle than their British mediaeval
>equivalents - a carl has 42 cows and a half-carl 21 cows. The average
>13th century English yardlander would have no more than 3 milk cows on
>average, plus a pig or two, 10-15 sheep, and a couple of oxen and/or
>horses. Even post-Black Death the richest yeomen in the village would
>typically have no more than 20 cows. So supply and demand means that
>cows are much less valuable in Sartar than they were in mediaeval
>England. (And I'd expect them to be even scarcer and more valuable in
>the Scottish Highlands)
Probably because Heortling society doesn't have the same structure as feudal England. Wealth is much less concentrated so thanes are generally poorer than feudal nobles but carls are better off than freemen. There is also an element of prestige in owning cows so I'm sure there are cases where more cows are kept than can really be justified on practical grounds.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/ ------------------------------
Powered by hypermail