I have found some interesting mentions on the origin of royal taxes in feudal and early feudal societies which I think have some relevance for Glorantha and Alternate Earth, too.
Sorry to mention a topic as unpleasant as this...
The IMO earliest form of taxing are the temple tithes. In societies
where the king was the highest priest by virtue of his divine ancestry
(Indogermanic and Mesopotamian kingship, also the Pharaohs of Egypt) he
could tap the temple gifts of the populace to finance state projects,
like road-building or the army. In effect most of the bureaucracy was
maintained by the priests, thus most financing as well.
This divine status of the king was at least as strong in the empires, even those built upon democracies or feudal systems.
While this divine status on Real Earth was somewhat hypothetical, on
Glorantha we find it as hard reality. The Dara Happan Emperors all
claim descent from Yelm or some other sky god, the Red Emperor is the
son of the Red Goddess (at least in a spiritual sense), the Carmanian
kings were descended from the (divine) Queen of Castle Blue, in Lake
Oronin, and the Malkioni kings were descended from Malkion the Prophet
(some accept his divine ancestry), the Serpent Kings of Seshnela were
visibly descended from Seshna, too. More theocracies we find in
Kethaela (both the Only Old One, son of the goddess of the land and the
ruling god, and Belintar, who demanded worship as high king of the
lands) and Kralorela. Teshnos doesn't even have a dynasty, but is ruled
by the high priests of one of its state cults.
All of the above mentioned rulers get a share in their populace's tithes, which make up a considerable amount of goods and currency. This share will not always suffice to maintain the current expenses, though. Unfortunate Dara Happan emperors like Khorventos did even pawn holy relics to finance pressing matters.
Thus other means of income were set up.
Tolls and duties were one way to get this income. The usual way to call in these was to give the privilege of collecting them to someone in exchange for a service done. These privileges contained duties as well, like upkeep of roads or bridges, but the net solution was profitable to all parts involved.
The oldest duty to provide royal income is the king's right to claim provision and housing for himself and his entourage on his circuit through his realm, regulating judicial cases and renewing his followers' allegiance. This requirement could be distributed on several of his followers, one of whom actually had to house the king and his men, while the rest provided the food and drink, or so.
This allowed the ruler to maintain a steady body of companions who
formed his core fighting troops, called gesiths, hirdmen, or knights.
When the kingdoms became more sedentary, other forms of claiming this
support evolved. In some cases single men of the king's entourage were
permanently assigned to one household for sustenance (Irish custom?),
in other cases royal palaces were built, spread about the country to
house the king and his entourage should they be close, otherwise cared
for by a king's reeve who collected the dues, either to wait for the
king's arrival, or to ship them to wherever the king needed them
(Charlemagne's finances worked this way). Less sophisticated versions
of these reeves were common in the smaller kingdoms of that time, and
are likely to be found among tribally organized or western influenced
Orlanthi.
Military service was one of the main duties of the subjects, and, given success, a profitable one: booty, ransom and tributes could make up the greater part of a ruler's income. This is the way most of classical Orlanthi society works.
Less classical (i.e. more civilized) Orlanthi society, mostly due to Western influences, will know the ersatz-payment of fees in order to escape (unprofitable) military service. This phenomenon is likely to appear in urban societies where the war-holidays between sowing and harvest didn't exist any more. Rather than leave his workshop, the artisan would prefer to give his liege lord goods to enable him to outfit his warriors. (Note that this is true for expeditional warfare, not for defensive warfare).
Jurisdiction is another possible source of income - a witness will participate both in paying weregeld, and in receiving it. The ruler's side will rarely lose a cause (in cases of doubt the ruler's champion, most likely the best fighter far and wide, could settle the case in a legal duel), and generally profit.
In some cases an institutionalized tribute was redirected as a royal tax, like the Boruma of Leinster or the Danegeld of England, which under the Normans (fittingly...) became the foundation for their treasury.
Coining has been another source of income to the rulers, although the decree that coining results in a 100% increase in value compared to the uncoined metal in Glorantha seems clearly false to me. Coined metal was increased in value (at least of utility) a bit, which is why privileges for minting were granted. The minter had to pay interest for the privilege, or had received the privilege in payment for a service rendered.
So how does this work out in sample cases of Glorantha?
First: Sartar before Lunar occupation.
The dynasty of princes had established themselves as conciliators and unifiers of the land. Their main income came from their interests in the trade ventures through Dragon Pass, where they had opened an alternative route between Maniria and Peloria to escape the sophisticated form of highway-robbery the Grazelanders had developed by the time Sartar entered Dragon Pass.
Sartar had originally come as an envoy of the Pharaoh, to establish safe places and routes for trade. His success exceeded the expectations of either when he found himself as the leader of several tribal coalitions formed around the cities he had founded as marketplaces, to allow traders to pass through without being harried by covetous small chieftains looking for easy targets for a raid. This mercantyle union was turned into a political union when the Kingdom of Tarsh, until then the solid bulwark against Lunar expansion, had been taken over by Lunar treachery, and was turned into another Lunar satellite state. This turn of events disturbed both Sartar and the Pharaoh, neither of whom _wanted_ direct neighbourhood with the Empire.
Sartar found himself pushed from the role of a peaceful mediator into the war-leader of a confederation of tribes and minor nations. (The historians still argue whether this had been his original goal, or whether he just reacted to the turn of events. The foundation of Boldhome generally is seen as his claim for independence from the Pharaoh, and started the mercantyle conflicts in the Volsaxi Valley which continued until Tarkalor's reign.) However, Sartar became the military leader as well as the judicator he had been before, and through his years-long heroquest which resulted in the marriage with the Feathered Horse Queen and his sovereignty over all the (free) lands of Dragon Pass as its King.
Sartar had financed the construction of the infrastructure of the tribal confederation he led by calling in debts he had earned in his role as judicator and peace-bringer. This, and the promise of high revenues from the markets in the newly founded cities, had convinced the tribal kings to aid him in building the excellent roads his principality became famous for. Tributes from the independent nations of Dragon Pass to their High King supplemented his income.
His successors were less wealthy, to start with. Unless they repeated
his feat of becoming King of Dragon Pass (only Tarkalor did), they had
no claims for sovereignty over the land, which remained with the tribes
and clans, and all their revenues came from interest in road tolls and
market fees in the cities, not counting the support for the royal
hirdmen granted by the citizens of the cities and the tribal kings.
(This was in effect a tribute, but nobody called it such, retaining the
honour of all involved.) Thus it was logical for them to expand the
network of royal highways, which each of them did. They convinced the
clans whose lands were affected by granting minor privileges to them.
The royal hird, made up by a company of fierce Telmori warriors (a bit like the berserks of Viking kings) and a company of sword-masters, and the royal household were provided for by the basic prince's gift of produce. All expenses surpassing these (like gifts, building projects, or outfitting expeditional forces for raids or defenses against Lunar Tarsh) had to be financed from other income, and since this income tended to dwindle in times of conflict, their situation against the Lunar threat was precarious.
In Heortland the political and financial situation was different. The Hendriki dynasty had been put into power by Arkat the Liberator, and had ruled the other clans ever since. (Note that Heortland clans easily can surpass Sartarite tribes in size; the main difference is that the office of the king has gone over to a centralized position, with all its benefits and duties.) Like in Sartar they didn't partake in the temple tithes (the ruler's portion went to the High King or Bretwalda, called Pharaoh by the Esrolites), but instead they could look back on their history as freedom fighters, and call in a substantially higher warriors' fee from the less combatant other tribes. This was one of the factors which early in the Second Age helped establish the idea of knight warriors, giving them a more western basis than most other Orlanthi societies anyway. The populace which had paid tributes to Palangio, the lieutenant of the Bright One, simply continued to contribute to the mounted warriors' upkeep and provisions. Thus, a substantial military tax exceeding the king's feorm could be called in from the beginning of this state, part of which went to the divine overlord of all of Kethaela, however, first the Only Old One, later the Pharaoh.
The Hendriki dynasty had their own clan lands as a base of power, too, unlike the princes of Sartar, and in addition they filled the positions of "dux militium" (leader of warriors, the German "Herzog" indicating the man marching before the host, excuse my use of German: "Der vor dem Heer (her) zog"), or duke in Western society. This rank of nobility was responsible for the coordination of the local forces, divided in military districts responsible to field a force equal in size to a Humakti regiment. These "Hundreds" made up the parts of the shires, led by Ealdormen elected from the clans' nobility. Over the centuries, some clans established themselves as noblity, often by marrying into the Hendriki clan, while others were restricted to the rank of the thegn gentry, customary leaders of the Hundreds. The cniht class was independent from clan affiliation and relied solely on sworn allegiance to either an ealdorman, a duke, or a king, possession of estates was rather the exception than the rule.
The Ealdormen doubled as king's reeves in the countryside and presided over the local folkmoots, where they took part in the judicial decisions. They and the elected mayors of the cities reported to one of the dukes, who in turn reported to the king. The dukes were responsible to reinvest part of the tax into their area of office.
Aggar is an example of a tributary kingdom of the Lunar Empire. The
king is chosen from the tribal contestors, usually tribal kings as well
(there have been exceptions, in case of heroic characters only
associated with but not leading a tribe). The king's personal income
comes from his tribal background. His portion of the tribute paid to
the Empire is made up by his responsibility to collect the tribute from
the other tribes, and to maintain the warriors necessary to do so. If
his warriors failed to collect the imperial tax, he was responsible to
make up for the difference - usually by raiding the tribe which failed
to comply, or raiding some other source of wealth if the refusing tribe
had the strength and preparations to deal with such a raid.
This situation makes the travels of the king among his subjects a more precarious affair than in Sartar, where the prince was not affiliated with any (enemy) tribe, and a welcome guest as conciliator in judicial disputes. The Aggar king needs to invoke all of the strongest regulations of the laws of hospitality whenever he visits one of his subject tribes, even if this tribe is supporting his politics.
The fledgeling Volsaxi confederation ruled by Brian from 1617 on had no
formal taxes whatsoever, all his revenue had to come from his own
clan's estates, or from the feorm visiting the other clans of his
domain. I think that his reign was supported by the Whitewall temple of
Orlanth, though, since he was the acclaimed champion of this faith.
With Orlanth worship restricted in Sartar, this temple collected tithes
even from Sartarite citizens who went there to worship and sacrifice
(in the guise of caravan guards, or traders, to escape Lunar scrutiny).
The Ditali clans were ruled by Western overlords who claimed sovereignty over the land, and demanded tributes from the clans which tilled the fields. While they remained freemen and warriors, thanes and farmers alike had to pay duties to their lords like cottars in Sartar or Heortland would have to pay to the chieftains or thegns.
The Ramalians have the crassest system of taxation and income among the Theyalan peoples, in making all of their farmer populace thralls which can even be traded, and all of whom report to the estates of the nobility, who "generously" let them partake in the wealth they produced.
Classical Hrestoli and Rokari society receives its main taxation from ownership of the land, although in Nolos and Pasos the importance has shifted towards revenues from trade and manufacture.
Loskalm with its New Hrestoli society based on meritocracy has reverted to a class-related tithing system, where each inhabitant is participating in the common expenses according to rank and achievement - - one good reason for people to remain in the farmer caste even if they'd qualify for the knight caste.
The Brithini almost work like a socialist society in which a common property is worked upon by its inhabitants, all revenues going into the common property, from which all inhabitants receive their due sustenance. Like in most realized socialist societies, the amount of due sustenance varies according to rank...
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #139
Powered by hypermail