> >As a good Dara Happan, Euglyptus simply determines how much he
needs
> >(with a target surplus of about 8,000 lunars to 15,000 lunars a
> >year - a pittance, but at least it compensates him for his time)
and
> >makes his decree.
>
> True as far as it goes but someone has to decide how much each
tribe
> pays. I'm sure there's a whole department in the Lunar
administration
> that does nothing else.
I disagree. For example, Roman censors found that accurate census taking in their provinces was a difficult task at best. To ease the strain, taxes were assessed as a tithe on entire communities rather than on individuals. Tax assessments in these communities fell under the jurisdiction of Provincial governors and various local magistrates.
The Lunar provinces have nothing that even remotely compares to even a local county assessor's office. Euglytpus probably has a small staff that handles the logistics of the Army of Occupation - probably just an extension of his personal household. They estimate what Euglyptus needs and apportion that assessment between the tribes based on intelligence data like that of the Good Rat in KoS. As the Occupation continues, the intelligence gets better and the process of apportionment gets easier to administer.
I think that the tax collectors pay Euglyptus in advance of actually collecting the taxes. These payments were, in effect, loans to the Governor-General and he is required to pay interest back to the tax collectors. As an offset, the tax collectors have the individual responsibility of converting properties and goods collected into coinage, alleviating this hardship from the treasury. In the end, the collectors would keep anything in excess of what they bid plus the interest due from the treasury; with the risk being that they might not collect as much as they originally bid.
The collection of taxes and the conversion of properties into specie is presumably handled by leagues and associations (and is probably given to whatever league is affiliated with the Governor-General). Presumably the Etyries cult is very tightly linked into the process.
> Euglyptus won't complain if more tax is collected than he
> decreed, he'll just pocket the extra.
I doubt Euglyptus gets the chance. Any extra is pocketed by the collectors. Euglyptus needs to get his extra up front.
Jeff
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