>> Replace "rabbit" with "cow" and you've probably got
>> the situation in Sartar.
>
>Which tells you something about tax rates in Sartar. The taxes in
>Scotland were, I believe, regarded as Too High (by those paying them).
>On average, cows are bigger than rabbits...
And they breed more slowly, too...
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)
Stephen
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