Tax Farming from Michael Cule on 1996-09-13 (Glorantha Digest Vol 03)

From: Michael Cule <mikec_at_room3b.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 21:40:21 GMT

I think the problems that real world governments had with tax farming were the following:

Lack of direct control. You can't change things without renegotating the contract with the agents.
Lack of fine control. And those contracts were often for years at a time.

So if a tax proves unworkable or so unpopular as to cause riots (a not uncommon phenomenon) you can't call them back without major expense and inconvienience. You had to get it right when you set it up.

What is more the people enforcing the taxes were going to push their rights to the limit. They wanted to ensure the maximum difference between the money they advanced the State and the income they derived from the taxes.

The tax-collectors of pre-Revolutionary France were trying to build a wall around Paris to better enforce the tax on goods entering the city. This was a symbol of the taxes imposed on basics that was seen by the populace of the capital every day.

(Of course, in the case of Revolutionary France the fact that the nobles were excused most taxes made things worse.)

More on this in Simon Schama's CITIZENS. (A jolly good read!)

The magical abilities of the Empire to communicate at long distance make them if not the equivalent of a modern state then at least the equivalent of a nineteenth century one.

Perhaps the Solar Emperors of Dara Happa farmed out the taxes to the upper classes and the Red Goddess altered the way taxes were gathered in response to pressure from the lower classes.

-- Michael Cule Actor and Genius

AKA Theophilus Prince Archbishop of the Far Isles Motto Nulla Spes Sit in Resistando (Resistance is Uslesss) Ask me about the Far Isles Medieval Society: Better Living through Pan-Medieval Anachronisms.