At 06:18 PM 7/1/04 +0000, you wrote:
>That means the Empire must send on average around 70,000 lunars in
>support of the occupation.
No, it means that the occupation costs the authorities an average
of 70,000 lunars. A number of factors argue against the full value
being sent in coins every year.
- Money circulates. Once a coin is spent, it doesn't
disappear off the face of the earth or into a never-touched
bank account but remains in circulation until lost, melted
down to make something else etc. Thus many of the
coins sent to pay the occupying forces one year can
easily be used to pay the troops in the following years.
- Soldiers are not paid their full income but have had
numerous expenses deducted from it by the officers.
To get more money, they either learn a trade or plunder.
- Many literate officers find it much easier to pay the
soldiers a token amount while keeping the remainder
in a chest to be paid when the soldier retires. More
enterprising officers find ways to spend that chest so
to have money left over.
--Peter Metcalfe
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