“Building a better universe today to merchandise tomorrow!”
October 2009
Published and written by Jean Lamb (aka excessivelyperky). All contents copyrighted 2009. This issue may be distributed freely as long as it’s done in its entirety. Contact Jean Lamb at tlambs1138@charter.net for subscribing and unsubscribing—I don’t have any of those cute little bots yet. All issues archived at www.freewebs.com/excessivelyperky. (This one should be there soon).
For those of you for whom this is your first issue, this is a writing newsletter concentrating on worldbuilding. One thing: the example of worldbuilding that I give in here is my original material, and is my universe to play with. It is also an example to follow.
Ahem. Why, yes, it has been a long time since I updated. Sorry about that. Life got in the way, and so has joining Final Fantasy XI (my son forced me! Brutally forced me!), becoming addicted to Harry Potter fanfiction, and dealing with Real Life ™. But to quote Granny Weatherwax, “I aten’t dead yet!”.
Which leads me to this episode’s subject: economics. We have all been affected, one way or another, by the economy that went down the toilet in September 2008 and hasn’t come up for air yet. I still have a job, house, and health insurance, but I know a lot of people who don’t. Our family has been very, very lucky in that we are still both employed, even though neither one of us has seen a raise for Quite Some Time, and we won’t be able to retire for years yet. Things could be a lot worse.
What happens to your characters when times are hard? Who turns to thievery when there are no real jobs, the crops in the field have been washed away, and children die for lack of food (there are several places in the world where this still happens, I might add). What part could magic play in a real-world economy?
In this light, I nominate Harry Turtledove for Worldbuilder of the Month, especially for his fantasy work. CURSE OF THE TOXIC SPELL DUMP is a marvelous example of integrating economics which is affected by magical work (along with REALLY dreadful puns). Other examples include the INTO THE DARKNESS series, especially for the idea of the magical restbox, which acts as a food (and other things) preserver, and is once pressed into use as an emergency medical transport. I also enjoy how he integrates human and alien culture, including pets, bad jokes, and fashion into his Lizardwar books.
Economy
Agriculture
Crafts
Natural Resources
Industries
Tech
Mage-driven
Trade
Coinage
Taxation
ECONOMY
Agriculture: Small freehold farms are common in the west, south, and eastern mountain areas; the flat eastern area is usually divided up into large, fairly well managed estates. Some peasants are legally bound to the land in these large estates (Horbdin especially, though some remnants of this system can be seen in Prien), but the growth of cities and the ease of transportation is making this less common. Subsistence farming usually takes priority, with a few cash crops. Land ownership used to be that of a large landlord holding a number of different farms--however, that changed with the war about fifty years ago that split Talisgran apart. Many landmasters died defending their lands or had to flee. The peasants stayed. When others tried to take their place, the Church intervened by producing only slightly backdated deeds showing ownership of small plots by the actual workers. This was backed up by the beginnings of the Mercenary Guild (many of whom came from those peasant families). Everyone had to start even, at least in the western provinces. Another contributing factor was the smaller number of peasants, who took advantage of the higher value of their labor (many of them died in the invasion as well). Naturally, some noble families took their assigned plots and did better with them than some of the peasants next door, and some larger estates now exist once more (though the Church and various legal entities try to make sure no actual thievery goes on). For instance, the Nevoir family in Chelde once owned a very large estate. They lost everything but the manor house in the war, as well as most of the male members. When the land was divided up, devastated as it was by invasion, each member received a plot, but worked it in common. A few members of the family stayed on the land, while the rest went into trade. Since then, the Nevoir family has been purchasing land like mad whenever a peasant wants to hang it up and head for the city, and putting together rather a nice estate. However, some ingenious peasants have been doing exactly the same thing and also own some larger estates. The Nevoir family has a fairly lively rivalry with one such family (who can be characterized White Trash With Money), and has even contemplated intermarrying with them. Nothing succeeds like success!
However, this is NOT the case in the east, since Horbdin was never invaded (not fair--they started the whole war to begin with). The landed nobility still control the peasantry both de facto and de jure, though this is beginning to diminish as more educated peasants pass their knowledge on to their children and have sufficient leisure to work on other pursuits, or move to the city (thus increasing the value of the peasants that stay). There is also more of an agricultural surplus even in the east, since during the invasion Horbdin practically fed the rest of Talisgran. Now the west and south are producing almost to capacity once more, which allows Horbdin to keep more of its surplus for products such as beer (this also lowers the price of bread and ale throughout Talisgran, and helps to increase the population from its wartime levels).
The eastern provinces provide cattle grazing, wheat and barley growing, and root crops (though there are some orchards in the southeast). The northern ones provide dairy products, seafood (salt fish in particular), and herdbird meat. The western provinces provide truck garden crops, soft white wheat, orchard crops, vinyards, and specialty items. The river provinces provide fish (where the rivers aren't too badly polluted by industry, etc.). The mountain provinces are reasonably self-sufficient locally (even Alkentin), but focus mainly on barley, goats, and one very hardy root crop (much like a cross between a potato and a turnip), and wild meat. The western provinces have cattle herds, but half of them goes to support of the local dragons in some locations. However, even though maintaining a dragon may seem like an expensive luxury, there are too many stories of how the dragons preserved some places from the worst effects of invasion for anyone to grudge the cost. Everyone in the west is all too well aware how close Ramius and Issanac are (while Cuda is far too close to Issanac, Mintar and Grand Marq as far as that country is concerned). Plus which, anyone who goes to a dragon with presents and asking for advice generally gets it, almost always to the person's good.
With local wars, the Mercenaries' Guild may not trample or fire standing crops, and battles must not be fought during harvest (heavy fines are levied on any commander who does, except in self-defense. This is where things get tricky, because provocation and setting up is rather common by those with sporting blood, not to mention outright lying. However, any commander with a reputation for gambling with local crops is often not invited back). Then there's Lemgol, where anything goes because the peasants there have just given up (Kuseltin would like Argnon to move into Lemgol while it disposes of Peyer, and then allow Kuseltin to move back into Lemgol, but the rulers there like to dream big.)
In general, agriculture has produced a varied number of crops and has produced a surplus sufficient to sustain a slow but sure population growth and to allow enough peasants to leave the land to work in a small but growing industrial establishment. Land is still fairly well divided in the west, though small estates are gradually consolidating into larger ones. Land is still owned by a relative few in the east, though some families are gradually selling off their land to the more enterprising peasants as the heirs go through what they were left in more prosperous years. The landmaster/peasant arrangement is still quite strong in Horbdin and is supported by provincial policy, but even the king can see the times are changing. After a while, uppity peasants are just too much trouble to rule, especially since they don't feel threatened by the invasion from the west any more, and they feel like they should be rewarded for feeding the rest of Talisgran while often going hungry themselves (and they're jolly well right, too!). The aristocrats of Horbdin have often found themselves overextended for various reasons, a lot of them military, and leave power in the hands of peasant overseers who learn that estate management is something it doesn't take noble blood to do. The rulers of Horbdin are uneasy about peasants leaving the province, but fear it will take more concessions than they want to give to keep them.
In Peintal and Prien, adoption of Ramius-level sanitary standards has resulted in a population boom. Agriculture in those areas is barely keeping up. In Peintal, the extra population is used to help build the canal, while in Prien they tend looms. However, feeding them is another story, despite fairly good land. (Population pressure of the same sort is what precipitated Ramius' invasion of Issanac.) Chelde finds the price for its agricultural products going up, since both Peintal and Spelgen are getting behind the population/agriculture eightball--one due to growth of population, and the other due to growth of industry. Simmern and Drulm are also exporters of food, as is Persti. In Prien, they are still holding their own, but barely, since most of Olpe's surplus ends up going to Sticmed. Peyer is self-sufficient, but nobody really knows why. Goslan has a modest surplus, which they are trying to keep for themselves (occasional border raids from Peyer don't help much). Argnon has a fairly decent surplus, but the city (except for some export cash crops, such as wine) keeps about half of it. Kuseltin produces a lot of food, but uses most of it to feed their military. Food is not traded as much as it could be, since tolls on the river raise the price too much for any but the most desperate, though much of it goes by land.
Methods include the iron plow in the east, where the soil requires it (and the use of which has increased the amount of land under cultivation, even in high areas such as Sitat and Buren). There is a basic understanding of the need for fertilization (again, especially in the east) and the requirement for land to lie fallow for one year in every three where fertilizer isn't available. Viniculture includes knowledge of grafting. Orchards try to acquire beehives for pollination.
Land inheritance--land plots are not divided up between children. Strict primogeniture is not adhered to, though--the land goes to the child best able to care for it, though the person inheriting the land must make some sort of provision for the rest of his/her brothers and sisters (good marriages, setting up in a craft, sponsoring to a guild, finding a job with a local industry, finding an apprenticeship, or maintaining an honorable place on the farm itself, etc.). Conflicts may be arbitrated by the Church or by local legal authorities. In Peyer, the land is worked in common under the Singer's direction. In Goslan, land title goes through women only. Mages may not own land except in Drulm. Dragons theoretically may own land, but rarely bother registering title with lowly humans (they have their own system of territories which have little to do with human legalities). No one argues with them anyway.
Crafts: Every household works at some kind of crafts, if only to provide basic household materials for themselves and for others in their village (especially in the large estates in the east). Households are more self-sufficient in the west in farming communities, because of the distances involved between freeholds, while they're closer together and more specialized in the east where more people live together on large estates. In the towns and cities, hardly any family goes without some traditional craft, even those where everyone is employed in some factory (mining, looms, smithing, etc.). It's considered necessary to have something on the side even in noble families, since there was a great levelling (at least in the west) when Talisgran was invaded and many former Splendid Idlers found themselves thrust upon their own talents to help their families. It is still quite unfashionable to be useless, after the great rebuilding that had to be made. In fact, there are very few SI's even among noble families in the east, since they always had a tradition of hard work--they may be quite prosperous, but they never really feel like it, since they were overshadowed by the west for so long. The eastern noble families were glad to see the proud westerners brought to their knees, but now are awed by how fast that part recovered and respect them more. There are some SI's beginning to crop up among the student population in Argnon (they aren't allowed in the Institute of Rhetoric in Horbdin in the first place), but the Dean usually lets them in only for the sake of their tuition, and indeed uses them to subsidize some eager peasant. The Nevoir family was brought up to work--even Julian has spent some time out in the family fields as a young boy. His sisters are proud of their lacework, and brag they could make their living if they needed to from it. Julian himself is an excellent copyist. Tameron fits right in with his woodcarving. It's considered dishonorable to have only one skill--even Hauk is a good cook.
Crafts, over and above those needed for household consumption, make up a considerable part of local economies. Some have bloomed into factory-system production (soap in Buren, made from wood ash and extra milkfat, the looms of Prien, and so forth). The cultural effect of the invasion, at least in the west, was to make even nobles feel they had to depend on themselves and not on others for their sustenance. That effect is beginning to pass away as those who survived the invasion are dying off--however, a lot of upstart peasants are adding competitive factors into the mix, and making nobles feel they either have to be able to compete by working some themselves, or by working harder to keep the few peasants on their estates down. However, the spread of education is working against the second possibility.
Crafts in textiles include knitting, spinning, weaving (the Weavers' Guild doesn't mess with household crafts, but levies a small tax on stuff not made by Guildmembers--usually collected efficiently in the towns and cities, but hardly at all in the country), lace making, embroidery. Almost no beadwork is done except in Sitat (and nowhere near the Fiallyn Mor standard). Most dyes are applied by Weavers' Guild members, along with most of the fulling of woolen cloth. Rope is made by the Ropemakers' Guild in coastal and river provinces, but as a craft everywhere else except in Prien and Horbdin (who use a lot of rope in industry and farming).
Crafts in wood include carving of common household goods, capital goods such as looms, mine brace pieces, furniture, the occasional wooden leg for soldiers and victims of accidents, dolls, toys, wooden screens, doors, decorative work in housing, spear poles, tent poles for use by soldiers and such, ship chandler goods and gears. Ocean going ship masts are made by a separate guild entirely. Crafts in metal include swords, armor, some parts used in looms--the ones that wear the most when magically or steam-powered--forges, farm equipment (iron edges for plows, for example), ship gears and winches, dock hooks, butcher and hunting axes and knives, blades for woodcutting, spits for cooking in large establishments, and metal dishes and tankards, etc.
Other crafts include copying, felting, fur and skin tanning, meat and other food preservation, brewing, wine-making, a certain amount of discreet distilling in the Alchemy building, soapmaking, perfume making (usually in the south, though the berries in the Sticmed area are extremely aromatic and go into scents as well as into wine), jewelry-making, shoe and boot making, musical instrument making, pottery and porcelain making, toymaking, and nearly anything that doesn't involve heavy capital investment. Cultural orientation: any family, rich or poor, that does not practice or at least instruct their young in some sort of craft, gets looked down on as being lazy or acting above themselves. Even the King in Horbdin is said to be good as a professional butcher at dressing out deer (though he tends to imagine them as bureaucrats he'd like to treat likewise, but knows he'd better not.). The current head of the Zabechs is said to be a fine musician. The only province that doesn't emphasize crafts is Alkentin, where prowess at fighting is far more important, but even there the women preserve many crafts.
Natural Resources: These resources include a hardworking populace eager to rebuild after devastation in war, marginally fertile soil in the east and quite fertile soil in the west, access to the wisdom of those dragons who feel like speaking to humans, thick forests not yet overly plundered, coal deposits near Varel, iron deposits near Sticmed, water power, navigable rivers, well-maintained canals, willingness to learn from other countries, access to ocean shipping in both north and south, access to salt in both north and south, rulers willing to invest in education even though it might cause social problems, and an entrepeneurial mindset, along with other assets.
Problems include intramural strife, occasional foreign intervention, tolls that drive up the price of everything that must travel, constant smuggling which supports a strong criminal class, religious turmoil in some areas, and loss of national identity.
Industries: The main industry which is mage-driven is the weaving in Prien. Someone from there went to Ramius and reported on the water-power driven looms there, came back, and wondered why looms could not be driven by magic instead? As long as someone tended each machine to keep it in proper running order, you wouldn't need trained weavers and wouldn't have to pay the workers as much. It would be cheaper to keep a couple of mages happy and well-fed than to pay a large number of well-trained weavers--besides, the weavers either own their own looms and/or save up enough to buy one and become part of the competition instead. This way, as well, one could provide jobs for younger people who otherwise wouldn't earn much. After all, the Church provides instruction in basic reading and ciphering whenever the mages are on rest breaks, so the children aren't deprived of their education, like in the mines (or so one has heard). The Weavers' Guild is still screaming, but can't complain as long as the dues are paid on each loom and the quality of the weaving is up to spec. They tried to bar the innovation altogether, but once the compromise was worked out so that dues were paid on each loom and not on each weaver, suddenly everyone felt better about it (except for the weavers thrown out of work, but they're combining to form their own concern, where they do specialty and complex weaving that a mage can't handle by driving ordinary looms). Mages at these places work in three hour shifts where they must directly control the looms, or in six-hour shifts where all they have to do is to power a mechanism that drives more than one loom (for very simple plaincloth weaving only).
Other industries where mages at least provide assistance include coal mining, where mages help drain water and evil vapors, and occasionally brace shaky tunnels long enough for the miners to escape; canal-building, where they help move earth and/or hold back water; non-iron/steel smelting, glass, pottery, and porcelain manufacture, and occasional help with road-building and weather-magic for ships at sea. However, their participation is in no way comparable to the integration of mages into the economy of Fiallyn Mor. Mages are mostly likely to be involved in other occupations, such as healing, battle-mage, and the Church, or as hangers-on to some leader. Mages are also extremely unpopular with the dragons (who have a fair idea of what happened to their fellows in Fiallyn Mor).
Technology-driven industries include iron mining and smelting, paper and vellum manufacture, all those related to alchemy (is quite a bit of rivalry between the mages and the alchemists--Julian is extremely rare in that he combines the two pursuits), woodworking, lumber milling, grain milling (though some very low-level mages provide power for mills when water levels are extremely low), brewing, candle-making, lamp oil manufacture, most food preservation, and a few others that mages are not thought capable of handling well. (However, Tameron has a better idea of just what a well-trained mage can do, so when Julian returns he finds that his abilities are used more extensively than others.)
Water power is extensively used, especially along the river, though not as exploited as in Ramius (which had few other power sources till their acquisition of parts of Issanac). The base of Talisgran is still firmly agricultural, though that is changing. The factory system is beginning to be used for crafts especially for those making weapons and other war materials. In fact, Horbdin is coming very close to inventing the assembly line and interchangeable parts, especially with items such as spears that involve relatively little assembly and/or difference between them. The looms of Prien have lowered the price of cloth all over Talisgran, even with the tolls otherwise driving it up, since plain cloth is becoming more readily available, and more handweavers concentrate on luxury or patterned/figured cloth. Forests are beginning to look much thinner than they did in the past. They were devastated by fires in the west during the invasion fifty years ago, and then what was left was used up for rebuilding. Some restoration has been made, especially in areas where dragons have emphasized the necessity--however, Brettan's and Lemgol's forests have mostly been replaced by orchards and battlefields (in Lemgol's case). Forests around Sticmed are staying about even, since mining requires lots of braces, but the replacement rate is not very high in comparison to how much wood was cut when the mines were first built. Some wood is also used up in preliminary iron ore smelting, as well as for heat production, since the area is quite cold. However, the population is also fairly low, so the cut is sustainable. In Spelgen, the forests were nearly gone until the coal deposits were discovered, but have since started to come back since coal is being burned for many uses instead of wood (though the constant hanging smoke gives the trees an odd look). Forests in Buren and Sitat are being cut for timber export as well as local use and are beginning to look sparser than before (but some folks like this, since this allows more meadows for grazing and building, since they are having a moderate population increase). The forests in Horbdin are nearly gone, and they must import wood from the north.
Water resources are plentiful, though the Talis and the Brysa are starting to look pretty ugly after draining the smelteries at Varel. By the time the river reaches Argnon it's pretty undrinkable (local springs are used for water supply instead, while river water is used for any industrial purposes such as in paper plants). The alchemists prefer to purchase spring water for most of their uses, since the river water tends to react in unexpected ways and ruin their experiments.
Trade: Trade among the provinces and with foreign countries is aided by navigable waterways and a halfway decent set of roads (except in some provinces, such as Geven, Alkentin, and Buren, whose roads are really bad when they exist at all. Sitat, surprisingly enough, has fairly decent roads for as high and far away as it is). However, the system of tolls up and down all the main rivers makes the price of goods extremely high any distance from origin. This is ameliorated somewhat by the immense amount of smuggling and bribery--however, no internal barriers or tolls at all would greatly lower the price of goods, allow the original manufacturer to recoup a somewhat higher profit, and increase the standard of living overall, though some local manufacturers and craftspeople would scream blue murder. Or will, actually, when unification finally does take place. This is especially true of anything that must travel through canals (though the Chevan Canal was actually paid for twenty years ago, and now the tolls, except for a small percentage devoted to maintenance of the locks near Sticmed, are pure profit). Lots of people look back to the Golden Days when Talisgran was one country, but like the way things are now, too.
Steel from Varel goes all over Talisgran, and some of it out the back door to Issanac. Cloth from Prien also goes all over Talisgran. Wine from Argnon and Brettan are shipped north, since it's not the kind that is popular enough in the south--besides, Allante and Cuda have that market sewed up. More often, wine is imported from Grand Marq or Mintar. Fine textiles (linen, silk, brocades) are usually imported, while plain cloth is exported from the north to Ramius and Athlath. Mayellin trades with Azdab, as does Horbdin. Beer from Horbdin also goes all over Talisgran. Most crafts stay in the local area, more or less, except for high value low bulk items (sangweed or tioberries or the dark mushrooms of the west, jewels--especially pearls from a few beds just south of Argnon--especially fine weapons, and various other items. Paper and vellum are also useful trade items, as is ink. Drugs, of course, go everywhere, usually for medicinal purposes.). Preserved cheeses from Buren and Sitat are exported along with timber, along with soap. Perfumes are usually made locally, since they don't travel well. Alchemists are more likely to send formulas on paper or vellum as an item of export than the actual potion. Peintal trades more with Ramius than with the other provinces. Glass is sometimes traded, though always with great care, and at great cost. Glass mirrors are imported from Allante, though one must be sure it's not actually from Mintar (magic mirrors from Mintar have exotic and dangerous properties, including those of espionage).
Many people spend their lives on the road trading rather than mess with barges (though barges tend to carry the bulk items, like coal, iron ore, wheat, timber, and Prien cloth). The costs work out nearly the same once the tolls are added in. Caravans are common and provide a lot of work for the Mercenaries' Guild. Also, people like to travel. Between the years of handing the family concern over to the younger generation and real old age there is often a window during which the person has less responsibility and is still vigorous enough to spend it travelling. Also, the young man's wander-year and the older woman's wander-year, as well as the number of students and apprentices on errands for their masters add to the number of people on the road and the river. They often dabble in trade to help pay expenses (well, let's call it smuggling and be done with it!), thus competing with the professionals. This often has interesting results, sometimes requiring legal intervention.
Coinage: Before the invasion, the standard largest unit of coinage was the gold taler (about one ounce) usually bearing the smiling face of the Lord/Lady of Talisgran on one side and a dragon on the other (usually the Lord/Lady's Court Dragon, who was generally the Chief Adviser who ran through a number of humans to train). Smaller coins were as follows: it took 100 silver talers of equal weight to equal the worth of a gold taler, and had the face of the Lord/Lady's current consort on one side and a crescent moon on the other. It took 100 copper coins to equal the worth of a silver taler, and the copper coin had the face of the Lord/Lady's chief war duke on one side and crossed swords over the picture of a river on the back. The edges were milled to stop clipping, or at least slow it down some.
Alas, those days are long gone. Many of the old style coins are still in circulation, but so are a bunch of others issued by other parties. When coins are scarce, the guilds sometimes issue vouchers with a master's seal saying it's good for so many copper or silver or golden talers' worth of goods. The Mercenaries' Guild holds fast on being paid in fair coinage, but has accepted vouchers from some guilds with a good reputation for paying up. Many merchants do business this way, since thieves often don't read and prefer untraceable coins to contract/vouchers. Some guilds issue bearer vouchers, which are often traded back and forth as if they were paper money. Banking is still extremely primitive, except in Skiro (Olpe), Varel, Sticmed, Horbdin, and Argnon. Banks in those areas often deal with more paper than they do coins.
Horbdin issues its own coinage, but of the same weight as Old Talisgran coins, though with different faces (and no dragons). Argnon also issues coinage, but of slightly different weight (just a bit greater) to conform with that of Allante, Cuda, Grand Marq, and Mintar. Skiro trades in parchment vouchers among the northern cities, but deals in coin with Athlath (who has their own coinage, which is fairly honest). Spelgen and Sticmed deal in industrial paper, especially concerning iron and coal It’s easier to smuggle, and what kind of tolls can you levy on that? Granted, some river toll officials try...which means some commercial paper is sewn between two layers of something else. There was a case where someone paid toll on transporting books with highly colored plates of interest to young gentlemen, paid a large toll on it, and still made an enormous profit once certain commercial papers were slid out from between the sides of the plates. And then there was the shipment of wheat which was not what it seemed, though all the toll officials usually check them pretty thoroughly. And then there was the shipment of oil from Cuda that went all the way to Horbdin, which had the proposal from Grand Marq in it sealed in a wax-stopped glass bottle at the bottom of the barrel. You can see how this can happen. Some other provinces issue their own coins, though they don't watch their quality control nearly as much. (Sticmed has iron coins, which are generally for local use only, basically as company scrip for the miners, and Spelgen is copying it).
There there are coins from foreign nations circulating as well--mostly from Ramius and Athlath in the north, though some end up there from Caphtor (one coin declares itself to be the issue of the Phoenix Empire, but nobody can read it. It's honest weight, though.) while coins of all nations circulate in Argnon, including those of Mintar. It's said to be bad luck to hold coins from Mintar too long, though--have a reputation for poisoning every business and relationship of the person who holds them. Some coinage from Azdab also circulates, though those coins are not round but triangular in shape. Azdab has lost favor in the last few years since their coins seem to contain more base metal than usual lately. The Merchants' Guild performs quality tests on coins with the help of the Metalworkers and Alchemists. Counterfeiting is punished severely, usually by maiming or death. Word gets around the guilds quickly as to what coinage is good or not, but many do long for the days when the coinage could be trusted (however, the hard work that has gone into working out copper, silver and golden taler equivalents in work and guild-standard goods for voucher issuance will eventually result in a gold-backed paper currency. The issuance of bearer vouchers by some guilds will bring that day even closer, and offers an incentive for even thieves learning how to read).
Forgery of vouchers is punishable by death, punishment to be meted out by the guild whose name has been profaned. There's some really interesting variations here--ever seen someone mangled to death by a power loom? Not a pretty sight--and then the loom must be burned, so the perp's goods and chattels are usually confiscated as well. Other guilds have other equally horrid methods to dispose of forgers. The seals used for imprinting the wax on these vouchers are held very secure (and those who make the seals bonded by the Church, who has equally awful penalties for those who break their bond of honor).
There are a few budding coin collectors (and not just misers), who love coins for their beauty and rarity. The King of Horbdin is said to be one, and there are a few in Skiro and Argnon. However, their utility is still by far most important. Paper vouchers are seen as a necessary innovation because of the lack of decent standard coinage (but may yet come to replace it for most large transactions, where carrying lots of coin would be dangerous). Mercenaries are usually paid in coin rather than vouchers, though, as are many temporary workers. Most traders prefer to split half and half, until they hit the big time, then generally work within the contract system. Coins are more popular in provinces that are unstable ('hard' money vs. 'soft'). The Mercenaries' Guild, as well as some others, maintain banks for their members. There is some moneylending, but it's still in its infancy, and you're still taking a big chance unless you deal with someone you know well. Interest rates are fairly high, especially where there's warfare. Unification would help a lot.
Taxation: Taxation comes in the forms of service, kind, and cash. Mercenaries pay through their Guild, through their local Guild station, and the Guild makes individual arrangements with each provincial head. There are times when cash is short and members of the Guild find themselves offering guard-service to the local lord in lieu of other payment, but this is fairly rare as the Guild is the largest standing army. Alkentin is basically a loot economy. Many of the river provinces have fairly low general taxes but high tolls (this provides an indirect tax on everyone through the cost of goods, though). Major industries, such as the breweries of Horbdin and the looms of Prien, are partly owned or pay a percentage of output/cash equivalent to the head of government. The King of Horbdin also has crown lands which his family owns personally and provides some of the governmental maintenance from. In rural areas, taxes are usually paid in kind or service, while urban folk and traders usually prefer cash. However, options are available for service at times even in an urban setting (usually as a form of workfare to keep the number of beggars down). Peyer is a special case, since all goods are theoretically owned in common, but are really at the disposal of the Singer and his Disciples. In Drulm, taxes are collected in the form of 'voluntary gifts' to the ruler. Mages pay a special per capita tax to the Church as well as normal taxes (which finances their license to operate as a mage). Unofficial mages usually work very quietly (though most of these are mages only at a very low level), and usually as herbalists and healers, and thus come under the rule of their own Guild. There is a certain amount of communication between mages and some agitation to form their own Guild, but so far the Church has banned this, even when the mages have offered serious money upfront to be allowed to do so.
The Church receives no financial support from any of the local governments except in Prien, and most of that is for the Church's welfare functions.
Services provided by governments in return for taxes include defense, some welfare functions, occasional famine relief (though sometimes mages have been hired for modest drought relief or flood control, or even pest destruction), maintenance of a town dragon (if they have one), entertainment, law administration, some support of education, some sanitation (in urban areas), road maintenance (to some extent), dock maintenance (for those provinces that need it), peacekeeping, and various others, depending on the province. For those towns who maintain a dragon, they gain status, occasional good advice dispensed by the dragon, and a quieter countryside. Also, more mages tend to be born in areas where dragons live (though they don't care for each other much).
For the Mercenaries' Guild, taxes are taken care of out of the annual dues (dues higher depending on rank) and the Guild's share of loot (usually about 5%). It's to the Guild's advantage to have as many members working as possible, since nonworking members tend to drop out (as Hauk did for many years) and fight as independent troopers or turn bandit. There is a certain amount of featherbedding involved here (minimum required to be hired for certain tasks, that sort of thing, or why Hauk and Tameron can get hired in the middle of a siege). But given the desertion rate when things go poorly, it's probably just as well.
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