> > A cow per person per year sounds rather high. Easy enough for a
thane
> > but tough for a carl and pretty near impossible for a cottar. I
would
> > think an amount equal to half a cow per adult is going to be
closer
> > although since the tax collectors won't be counting people it'll
> > vary based on how they assess the tribe or clan and it'll be up
to
> > the chief who pays the tax within the clan.
Yep. However, I do think that the tribes that rebelled during Starbrow's Rebellion got hit with a tribute that averaged about a cow per person. That's the high water mark and the tribal and clan assessment eventually got to more sustainable levels (where the Lunars want it to be sustainable). But IMO the Lunar tax is deliberately too high - it forces the tribes and the clans to bend to the Lunar will or die.
> (Numbers came out of "Cattle Lords and Clansmen" by Nerys
Patterson -
> thanks to John Hughes for the heads up)
I use Patterson as well.:)
> My players clan (about 500 people) has slightly more than 800
cattle who
> have ~320 calves (half of whom are male) and lose about 115 to old
age,
> leaving a net increase of ~45 per year (and ~275 dead beasts to
eat over
> a year).
> Subtract from that losses to predators, cattle raiding and gifts
to
> neighbours and it's more like a zero-sum game.
Absolutely right.
> Requiring a half a cow per person would make the clan nonsustainable.
I
> think that something like 2 cows per stead (about 1 per 25 people
in my
> game) would be tough, but almost sustainable.
But the post-Rebellion Lunar tax is not supposed to be sustainable. Elect a pro-Lunar king or chief and your taxes go down. Build a shrine to the Seven Mothers and your taxes go down. Join the Seven Mothers and you don't get taxed. Stay a traditionalist, anti-Lunar Orlanthi and you will slowly die.
> If it includes payment in kind, throwing in sheep, swine and
> manufactured goods, you could probably double that payment and
still not
> be absolutely broke, but if you have a bad year, things will be
very tough.
I think that most of the tax is paid in kind - wool, metal, sheep, swine - and not in cattle. Still, the only way to stay a traditionalist clan is to raid your neighbors. Or rebel.
Jeff
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