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Dnd World Demographics Excel Tool - Rarity of Classes and Spells
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<blockquote data-quote="NotAYakk" data-source="post: 8289711" data-attributes="member: 72555"><p>The term might be modern, but take a look at the highland clearances.</p><p></p><p>There was something more useful than the subsidence farming. So they kicked out the serfs and did it.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about wealth. Coin was rare, but wealth is wealth.</p><p></p><p>The surplus food you get from farmers is a form of wealth. Ie, not starving, being able to feed your troops, even being able to trade some of it for luxury goods, or supporting people who could trade for it.</p><p></p><p>It also fed potential troops -- levys -- from the peasants.</p><p></p><p>Trade of food happens. Piles of preserved foods exist from ancient times, like sauerkraut<em>.</em></p><p></p><p>Drying fish for consumption elsewhere, even shipping grain happens. Storing the grain for another season is as old as agriculture.</p><p></p><p>With water based transport along rivers, it isn't that calorie expensive to ship food down-river. And near-shore ocean or sea trade isn't so dangerous it can't move bulk food.</p><p></p><p>No, the coin economy was much smaller than you think. Almost all taxes where in the form of goods you produced, not coins, for much of history. Like, a share cropper who would keep a share of the food they grew.</p><p></p><p>The vast, vast majority of the economy was food based. Only a relatively tiny amount wasn't food based. Most of that food was, as noted, used to feed the people growing it; that fraction grew as the population would expand over decades.</p><p></p><p>Because 10% is a lot larger than 0%. So you keep serfs to get wealth. (And it wasn't always "give me some of your food", but "work my land and you get to use other land to feed yourself")</p><p></p><p>If the mage-lord has a way to grow resources on that land that produces even 1/10th as much as the farmer did, it becomes really tempting to just replace the farmer with that source of food.</p><p></p><p>In history, you are some dude good with a sword, and you have a bunch of other dudes who are good with swords. You are also usually healthier than most people. You have some land. How do you get people to grow food on it?</p><p></p><p>Keeping slaves is suicidal. You need a lot more troops and the like to keep them from revolting. Instead, you have peasants or serfs or a variety of other farmers and you take a percentage of the food they grow. Well, maybe you have a "you have to give me X food no matter what" every year rule, as accounting for how much food they grow is going to be beyond your organizational ability.</p><p></p><p>Using that food, you feed your armorer and your troops, who in turn guard the peasants against other warriors.</p><p></p><p>You do need some trade goods, to pay for the metal in your armor and weapons and the like; not everyone has an iron mine. So you are going to have some non-food taxes. But that might very well not be directly on the serfs.</p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_medieval_England[/URL]</p><p></p><p>Taxes for coin was only on land owners. Serfs did not pay it.</p><p></p><p>Later taxes where not, for the most part, on serfs, but aimed at trade goods. Imports, exports, sacks of wool, and movable property.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="NotAYakk, post: 8289711, member: 72555"] The term might be modern, but take a look at the highland clearances. There was something more useful than the subsidence farming. So they kicked out the serfs and did it. I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about wealth. Coin was rare, but wealth is wealth. The surplus food you get from farmers is a form of wealth. Ie, not starving, being able to feed your troops, even being able to trade some of it for luxury goods, or supporting people who could trade for it. It also fed potential troops -- levys -- from the peasants. Trade of food happens. Piles of preserved foods exist from ancient times, like[I] [/I]sauerkraut[I].[/I] Drying fish for consumption elsewhere, even shipping grain happens. Storing the grain for another season is as old as agriculture. With water based transport along rivers, it isn't that calorie expensive to ship food down-river. And near-shore ocean or sea trade isn't so dangerous it can't move bulk food. No, the coin economy was much smaller than you think. Almost all taxes where in the form of goods you produced, not coins, for much of history. Like, a share cropper who would keep a share of the food they grew. The vast, vast majority of the economy was food based. Only a relatively tiny amount wasn't food based. Most of that food was, as noted, used to feed the people growing it; that fraction grew as the population would expand over decades. Because 10% is a lot larger than 0%. So you keep serfs to get wealth. (And it wasn't always "give me some of your food", but "work my land and you get to use other land to feed yourself") If the mage-lord has a way to grow resources on that land that produces even 1/10th as much as the farmer did, it becomes really tempting to just replace the farmer with that source of food. In history, you are some dude good with a sword, and you have a bunch of other dudes who are good with swords. You are also usually healthier than most people. You have some land. How do you get people to grow food on it? Keeping slaves is suicidal. You need a lot more troops and the like to keep them from revolting. Instead, you have peasants or serfs or a variety of other farmers and you take a percentage of the food they grow. Well, maybe you have a "you have to give me X food no matter what" every year rule, as accounting for how much food they grow is going to be beyond your organizational ability. Using that food, you feed your armorer and your troops, who in turn guard the peasants against other warriors. You do need some trade goods, to pay for the metal in your armor and weapons and the like; not everyone has an iron mine. So you are going to have some non-food taxes. But that might very well not be directly on the serfs. [URL unfurl="true"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_medieval_England[/URL] Taxes for coin was only on land owners. Serfs did not pay it. Later taxes where not, for the most part, on serfs, but aimed at trade goods. Imports, exports, sacks of wool, and movable property. [/QUOTE]
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