"Chybisa controls the only bridge across the Ulmerien and draws considerable wealth from caravan traffic using the Genin Trail."
CGI's Chybisa module
"...Geda has prospered from the commerce on the Genin Trail. Although the tolls collected at Geda are technically royal, the administration of the toll house is in the baron's hands. He receives 50% of tolls collected for performing this service."
Geda article in CGI's Castles of H�rn module
The above citations from the published material make it sound like the silver is just rolling into the royal treasury! But, as the GM, you will have to make some interpretations between the lines of the published material to make it true. "Why?" you ask? Because the published material is just a bit hazy about what is happening at those royal tollhouses. Consider, for example, the other tollhouses out there -- how are the king's different from those of the lord of the manor? And what is he doing collecting tolls on roads that are in someone else's fief?
"Fiefholders levy tolls on roads, bridges, and fords on their fief..."
CGI's H�rnManor Rules
"A generous quantity of Government tollhouses exist along most major roads, and at bridges, fords etc."
CGI's H�rnPlayer
"Throughout civilized Lythia, various authorities have established official tollhouses on major highways and caravan routes. Such tolls can vary, but standard rates are:"
CGI's H�rnMaster Rules
Standard Tolls
all prices shown in pence
Person | |||
Horse | |||
Cart* | |||
Wagon* | |||
Sheep/Goat | |||
Ox/Camel |
HM: H�rnMaster rules; HP: H�rnPlayer
* Draft animals are charged separately; one driver per vehicle passes free of charge.
** The Chybisa module tells us "standard tolls are charged" to cross the bridge in Burzyn.
Note that in feudal areas of H�rn the best interpretation of the above use of "government" is that of the holder of the fief in question.
The royal tollhouses must be different from those of the vassal fiefholders. Why? Because the vassals are responsible for maintaining the roads, and they are the ones collecting "tolls" to help them finance that endeavor -- the king has no reason to duplicate that effort. And, more importantly, if the royal tollhouses only collect the standard tolls, they are barely paying for themselves, much less providing the sort of royal revenues hinted at in the published material.
To illustrate that argument, let's suppose the royal tollhouses are the only ones marked on the atlas scale (kingdom) map of Chybisa. Let's also assume they are collecting only the standard tolls (as given in H�rnMaster rules and the Geda article) from the semi-annual caravan that takes Genin's Trail through Burzyn and Geda as it travels to and from the Great Fair in Tashal. How big is the caravan? Twenty wagons? Fifty wagons? One hundred wagons? For the sake of illustration, let's assume it is 50 wagons, each pulled by a pair of oxen, and each accompanied by two teamsters. At Burzyn, the caravan pays 112.5 pence on its way to Tashal in the spring, and another 112.5 pence on the return trip to Thay in the autumn. That's it! A total of 225 pence per year, or just a bit less than �1.
But let's not forget to add to that the revenues from Geda -- tolls there are lower than usual, and there appears to be no charge for persons, so the baron collects only 50 pence for each passage of the caravan, or 100 pence for the year. The baron keeps half of that and gives the other 50 pence to the king. That makes royal revenues from the passage of the caravan through Chybisa a whopping 275 pence per year, or just over �1. That is almost enough to pay the chamber maid's annual salary.
And the poor Baron of Geda is getting 50 pence a year out of this. That probably doesn't cover the cost of collecting it. Fifty pence! A good ratter makes more than that in a month. And, just down the road from Geda, the Abbot of Namadees is probably taking a toll from the caravan too, in his right as the holder of the fief and the man responsible for maintaining the road that runs through it -- but he doesn't have to share his revenues with the king! So, having the privilege of a royal tollhouse at Geda has turned out to be a burden on the baron, not a boon!
"Wait a minute," I hear you say. "Certainly there is more traffic on the road than that one small caravan." Yes, of course there is. But how much? Let's get a little silly, just to prove a point, and suppose the entire population of Chybisa living south of the Ulmerien, about 10,000 persons, marches across the bridge at Burzyn then turns around and marches back, paying the toll for the privilege of doing so. Revenues from that exercise would come to about 5,000 pence, or just less than �21. That almost covers the annual salary of the Captain of the High Guard. Almost.
If you are still with me, I hope you are by now convinced there must be something missing from our understanding of the royal toll houses. There is, and that something is thelony.
Essentially, thelony is very much like a tariff -- a tax levied on trade. While the main purpose of tolls is to raise funds for maintaining roads and bridges, the main purpose of thelony is to raise funds for the king's treasury. Tolls are levied on people who use the roads and bridges; thelony is levied on people engaged in trade. More precisely, thelony is levied on the goods they are transporting through the kingdom for the purposes of trade.
Like most medieval taxes and fees, thelony was for a time collected in kind instead of coin -- a merchant hauling a cargo of, say, 200 bolts of cloth might be required to surrender ten of them to the toll-collector. Thelony differs from tariffs or customs duties in that thelony was generally applied as a fixed or flat rate tax while tariffs were based on variable scales or tables that applied differing tax rates based on the type of merchandise or its origin.
In medieval times, thelony was a right of the king and, like other things, it could be granted by him, in whole or part, to others. Feudal land grants sometimes conveyed the right to collect thelony to their holders, and city charters sometimes granted the same right to the civic government (this is portrayed on H�rn in the form of hawking taxes and bonding fees). But these rights were often limited -- they might be granted for only a limited amount of time, or only to raise funds for a specific purpose -- and kings often regulated the type of goods on which thelony could be levied, the amount of thelony that could be levied, or the places where thelony could be collected.
But granting the right of thelony within their fiefs to his vassals does not imply the king has surrendered his own rights to tax trade within the kingdom. He still retained that right and usually exercised it, either by farming it out to the Sheriffs to collect on his behalf or directly through the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his Collector-General. And where would he do that? Why, at the royal tollhouses, of course. And it is their collection of thelony that makes them different from the tollhouses of the Lords of the Manors.
Before we continue, take a few minutes to browse the Internet Medieval Sourcebook's collection on the topic by clicking here and scrolling about one-third of the way down the page to reach the section on "tolls."
By now, you may have decided to work the concept of thelony into your own version of H�rn and are working your way through the historical texts looking for inspiration. One of the problems you may encounter is the inconsistent use of terms. Sometimes taxes on trade are called thelony but usually they go by a wide range of names such as poundage, tunnage, or they might simply be called tolls. Seldom will you encounter the term tariff, as this word did not come into the central and northern European languages from the Arabic (via Italian and Spanish) until sometime in the 16th century, and the use of the term customs duties seems just as rare. This inconsistent use of terms is compounded by the fact that the current meanings of these terms, with a distinction between a tariff on trade goods and a toll on the use of the road, are different from the meanings they had at various points in history.
The H�rnic purists out there won't even consider the idea of adding something to their personal version of H�rn unless it is already addressed in the published material. To help them over that hurdle, I offer this -- tariffs are mentioned at least thrice in CGI's published H�rnic material:
On page one of the Cherafir article (Melderyn module) we learn that "duties ranging from 10 to 500% (averaging 40%) are assessed against all allowable imports". Further down on the page we note that tariffs are not included in the list of taxes, but bonding fees (3%) and hawking taxes (15%) are. From this we can infer that tariffs are separate and distinct from these other taxes. It also leads us to understand that tariffs may exist in a place even if they are not listed under the rubric of taxes in the published articles.
In the description of Melderyn's government (chart on page 9), we note "tariff collectors" and "tariff clerks" work for the "Inspector General of Tariffs", and he works for the Exchequer Royal of Melderyn. We also note they are distinct from the "tax collectors" and "toll collectors" who work for the "Collector General" who works for the Treasurer of the Exchequer who works for the Exchequer Royal of Melderyn. Again, we see that tariffs are separate and distinct from taxes and tolls.
On page 13 of H�rnPlayer, and page Harn 8 in H�rnWorld, under the description of the Bondmaster, we learn the Bondmaster is responsible for "the collection of hawking taxes and import duties". Again, we see they are separate and distinct taxes even if they are collected by a single agency.
The foundation is there. As GM, you get to decide how to build the rest of the structure. Which office of the Royal Exchequer has responsiblity for taxes on trade? Where will it be collected? Will thelony be charged only on imports, or both imports and exports? Perhaps it will be collected on all trade, foreign or domestic, that travels the king's roads. In Chybisa, with a small number of tollhouses, collecting at royal tollhouses pretty much means it is collected only as goods are coming into or going out of the kingdom. I also fancy the idea of certain ports designated as "ports of entry," with royal trade taxes collected there in addition to any levied by the local authorities; foreign cargoes landing elsewhere would, of course, be a form of smuggling. Who will administer the collection -- will it be farmed out to Sheriffs or Barons, or will it be administered directly by the Collector General? It is up to you!
Now that we have established a basis for it, let's apply the collection of thelony as we take another look at revenues produced from the semi-annual caravan as it travels through Chybisa on its way to and from the Great Fair in Tashal. In this example, we will apply thelony as a very modest 3% tax on the declared value of the taxed goods. So, before we can begin, we have to establish some assumptions about the value of the goods in question. Let's take three carts as representative of the fifty carts in the caravan and use them to set an average value.
The first cart is hauling a collection of fine pottery obtained from Hamas of Leredeth and Tirti of Hamelwaith, two renowned potters who practice their art in Thay. The merchant has allowed for plenty of packing material to protect this valuable but fragile cargo, so there are only 125 pieces in his load. While some of them will fetch as much as 5 shillings (60d), the average piece will probably sell for somewhere between three and four shillings (36d - 48d). The total retail value of the cargo comes to somewhere around �21 (4,980d), but the merchant tells the toll collector the pottery is ordinary, run-of-the-mill stuff and has a total value of no more than �6. The toll collector is no fool, however, and they finally agree upon �9 (2,160d) as a reasonable value for the load.
The second cart is hauling 2,000 pounds of refined copper billets, pulled from Melderyni mines in the Anadel Hills. Mines are generally owned by the crown, and the Miner's Guild is usually exempted from thelony in the kingdom that owns the mines. In this case, the toll collector will collect thelony even if the cart is from the Miner's Guild because it is Melderyni copper and not Chybisan. The origin of the metal, along with its declared value of �6 (1,440d), is derived from the Bill of Lading that usually accompanies such cargo.
The third cart is carrying a load of luxury goods from distant Lythia, delivered by ship to Thay to join the caravan. The cart is only half-full, but carries �50 (12,000d) of ginger, cinnamon, nard, perfumes, Karejian olives, and Emelan linen. After careful inspection, and perhaps a small bribe, the merchant and toll collector settle upon a declared value of �18 (4,320d).
The declared values of the three carts average to �11 (2,640d). Using that as a basis for setting the declared value of each cart in the 50-cart caravan, and with a rate of 3% for the thelony, the caravan generates revenues of �16 10s (3,960d) as it passes the royal tollhouse at Geda. The Baron of Geda retains half of that amount and passes only �8 5s (1,980d) to the king. At Burzyn thelony is collected by royal toll collectors so the entire �16 10s goes into the treasury, resulting in a total revenue of �24 15s (5,940d) for one passage of the caravan. We double that amount to account for the return trip in the autumn, giving �49 10s (11,880d) as the king's annual revenues from the seasonal Genin Trail caravan. That is enough to pay the annual salaries of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his Treasurer, and we are taxing at a rate of only 3%. Now we are getting somewhere.