Secondly, tax collecting is a dangerous business, and so the actual threat and collection work is subcontracted/delegated to Sartarites and mercenary bands whenever possible. Sartarites from rival or enemy clans can be depended on to work with enthusiasm and efficiency. These traitors are known as 'moon winds' or 'ruptureds' and that is exactly what you should do to them if you get a chance.
The principles are the same everywhere: a set amount is specified for collection from a given population or area, and whatever you collect in excess is yours to keep. The only limit set by Imperial policy is that enough of the population should survive to allow the same amount to be collected next year (plus a 3 to 5 per cent efficiency dividend, where you get more for collecting less and less for collecting more). This often means that local authorities will radically underdeclare the actual population of a region, which may be one of the reasons the Sartarites were able to cause so much unexpected trouble later onm with armies that really had no right to exist.
Special taxes may be imposed at any time, for whatever reason: the Emperor's
birthday gift, funding to raise a new temple or to pay off the tusk riders
to go raid someone else. And taxes will not necessarily be demanded as food
or silver - they may involve forced labour, ceremonial prayers or even
(silly lunars) mercenary support. (In my own Ironspike campaign, the
(Yelmalian) tribal king once imposed a ritual tax on a stubborn and isolated
storm clan, forcing them to collect ten of every species of insect and
crawling thing - a carefully calculated ritual humiliation.)
Tax demons are universally feared of course, but I suspect they are used more often as threats to the tax collectors themselves rather than the subject populations. The first tax demon was probably the bastard that invented double column bookkeeping...
There are two main types of tax collection, though evil minds should not be in any way limited by these options. The first is a tax on goods moved by road, which is why so many startrails now wind among the hills and forest gors, much travelled by night. The second is on the annual harvest. In most cases its easiest to directly tax the clan chief, and let him do the worrying and arrange for the collection. Imperial authorities are at their most inquisitive around harvest time, and when lands are aportioned anew by the chief during Sacred Time. The late autumn collection is by far the most important, coinciding with harvest and with beast slaughter. Lunars must also create their stockpile of winter provisions.
Cheers
John
nysalor_at_... John HughesQuestlines: http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/
The Yen Buddhists are the richest religious sect in the universe. They hold that the accumulation of money is a great evil and a burden to the soul. They therefore, regardless of personal hazard, see it as their unpleasant duty to acquire as much as possible in order to reduce the risk to innocent people.
-Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad.
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