TURNTURNTURNThe Steward is dispatched to Merclefield to argue the finer points of feudal law with Baron Reece. In the meantime, you devote yourself to a study of the relative differences between dwarven and human book-keeping for the next few days.
9
As you realised in your meeting with Throvis, dwarven book-keeping has a level of precision verging on the insane. The Tax Collector is right that that level of detail is quite unnecessary, given the current taxes levied. However, you decide to explore why that is the case, talking to the dwarves you brought into the Bureau.
The reason appears to be cultural. Dwarven society is highly obsessed with recording and cataloging, just in case the information should come in handy - in your old world, this would be called 'data-driven'. For example, a drop in the number of cats roaming the hold may indicate the presence of a gremlin or other monster lurking in the deep levels and picking them off. What separates the dwarves from modern society is that this information gathered by the state is also made available to all. Any dwarf may peruse the ledgers for any reason, and all dwarven merchants make frequent use of the census information in their business decisions, such as deciding to switch from buying cabinets to chairs. As a result, dwarf-holds achieve a remarkably high level of productive efficiency, in a nominally free-market system without centralised production planning.
For the purposes of tax collection in the outlying villages, you convince the dwarven book-keepers to limit themselves to a level of precision that is a trade-off between usefulness and surveying difficulty. However, for the town of Tyneton, you decide to allow them a re-survey of the households in the town according to dwarven standards. This leads to some grousing amongst the townsfolk, but you also announce a new
Office of Statistics, open to all merchants to see the general state of the town in numbers. You have high hopes that this will lead to a boom in trade, improving tax revenues in the future.
While you're cooped up in your chambers interviewing the dwarven book-keepers, alarming news comes from the southwest. It seems that your Steward and Baron Reece had a misunderstanding, with the latter accusing you of looking to revoke his lands without due cause. Your Steward has been imprisoned along with some of his assistants, and only one of them escaped to bring the news to you. Baron Reece has not declared war yet, but rumours say that he is beginning to gather the people of Merclefield into a peasant militia. Your Marshal urges you to raise troops and march on Merclefield to put an end to this disobedience, while your Spymaster suggests that you pay some burglars to sneak into the dungeons and free your Steward.
What will you do?
A) Send a letter trying to clear up this misunderstanding
B) Send your Marshal, along with a contingent of household guard and some knights, with orders to free your Steward by force
C) Go in person, with said contingent of household guard and knights, to settle the situation as you see fit
D) Same as C, but raise some peasants into a militia as well to bolster your numbers
E) Attempt to free your Steward by trickery
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Topic: SPAMISEKAI: Count Quill of Tyneset! (Read 10439 times)