>I didn't mean to imply that the vast slums of the huge cities are the
>nice places.
>The majority of people live in traditional rural settings, and those
>regions are basically without external threats whatsoever. That is the
>majority of people, and they are much more peaceful in their small,
>tight knit traditional ways.
And these people are rarely threatened by bandits or government thugs (aka tax collectors)? In any case the disagreements which causes feuds and violence in Sartar will be just as common in Dara Happa although they may be resolved by the authorities using violence against one or both parties rather than individuals using violence against one another. You only have to look at the records of court cases of the feudal courts to see the scale of this.
>> >Furthermore, the internal trade of the empire, coupled with the
>> >aforementioned peace, generates a standard of living that is
>> >considerably above the desperate, hand-to-mouth level that is
>> >standard for pre-industrial societies.
>>
>> Again that's going to be true for the minority but I can't see
>> it applying to the average peasant or labourer. Indeed I would
>> expect their position to be worse than a typical Sartarite
>> cottar.
>
>Anything that improves the "famine one is seven years" cycle that is
>normal for agricultural societies is a vast improvement in standards of
>living. Yea, they still have such events, but they are greatly
>alleviated by the fact that SOME food is shuttled to their territories
>by their overlords.
In the RW the "crop failure is one in seven years" was solved long before the industrial revolution by efficent means of storing surplus grain. That's what the medieval tithe barns were for. The church collected their tenth of the crop which, in addition to supporting the clergy, provided food as charity in the bad years. It didn't stop famine entirely but did mean that it required an external factor such as war or plague for it to occur. I understand that the Chinese had a system so good that they hadn't had a famine in centuries prior to the 1730s when western ideas of buying and selling surplus crops were introduced. It's possible the Lunars have adopted the idea of trading surplus crops in which case famine among the peasantry is more likely.
If this seems counter-intuitive think about what happens when a middleman gets involved. He buys when there is a surplus and either transports it (at a cost) elsewhere or stores it until there's a shortage (also at a cost). The peasant then has to buy at a time of shortage, presumably with coin that he has saved from the good years but inevitably gets far less grain for the money than he gave. While a communal storeage facility still costs it will prove far cheaper for the peasant.
Given the ability of some Gloranthans in most cultures to predict the future I'd suggest actual famine, as opposed to crop failure, is pretty rare.
Taking the Heortling example they are also protected from crop failure by their wide range of crops and animals. When one crop fails people go hungry but don't starve because there are alternatives.
We also know that some parts of the Lunar Empire use slaves for farming. Such people are worse off than all but the poorest peasant. If we use the Roman model of farming with slaves, then it drives down the standard of living of nearby free peasantry. In the end that created the feudal system because the free peasant couldn't compete with the slave and serf owners.
>And their chiefs and leaders would be benefiting from the increased
>distribution of luxury goods, even if it is only a different style of
>cup they drink out of, etc.
Sure, that's a big reason why societies would adopt the Lunar way. The leaders benefit even when the people as a whole don't.
>> The benefits of the industrial revolution didn't filter
>> down to ordinary people for something like 50 to a 100 years
>
>How long has the Empire been at peace since Sheng Seleris was
>ejected?
However the industrial revolution hasn't started even in the Lunar Empire. And the factors which lead to the filtering down such as trade unions and "one man one vote" haven't been introduced.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
Powered by hypermail