The Emperor in debt

Part of the new fiscal plan is that if the tithes fall short, the emperor must make it up, so what would happen if merlin arranged for it to fall short, the nobility and bureaucracy would simply blame each other and atttempt to protect them selves. all thheo other nations have problems, now it is harchong turn.

SYED wrote
Part of the new fiscal plan is that if the tithes fall short, the emperor must make it up, so what would happen if Merlin arranged for it to fall short? The nobility and bureaucracy would simply blame each other and atttempt to protect them selves. all the other nations have problems, now it is Harchong's turn.

I had the idea that Merlin- Owl could add base metal to the Gold sent to Zion-except too many "innocents" would be put to the question. AND it'd be a major operation-
1)steal the gold-
2)resmelt it,
3)put it back.

The new fiscal plan is already going to be causing major problems. Why waste your time and energy for minimal return?

tootall wrote:SYED wrote
Part of the new fiscal plan is that if the tithes fall short, the emperor must make it up, so what would happen if Merlin arranged for it to fall short? The nobility and bureaucracy would simply blame each other and atttempt to protect them selves. all the other nations have problems, now it is Harchong's turn.

I had the idea that Merlin- Owl could add base metal to the Gold sent to Zion-except too many "innocents" would be put to the question. AND it'd be a major operation-
1)steal the gold-
2)resmelt it,
3)put it back.

True - that is a bit complicated.

What about if the treasure ship springs a leak that gets dramatically worse over a short period of time?

Similarly, the treasure cart can fall off a bridge.

The barge can sink in the canal.

Etc....


All right, in a majority of cases the taxes aren't permentantly lost - but the delays would make it harder and harder to obtain items on credit, if the payments are getting later and later....

THis harchong empire is famed for it's bureaucracy and corruption. SAy if the inquisition were to recieved a ledger detailing funds that rightfully belonged to the church, how could they not take action. they need the money.

Apparently the creator of gunpowder, wanted to use it to create a canal system in harchong to aid transport and the economy. Due to the need to keep money coming in, could they force the empire to create the theorized canal system. It might be a long term investment, but if achieved, the empire would become ar more valuable an asset.
the emporer has sent much of his army, so make it so those that are holding back, are those with the most military forces available. push it to see if rebellions can be started.

interesting possibility, but I dont think Merlin would do it, in many ways he believes in following the rules and helping others take advantage of possibilities. He only steps in and takes direct action when he absolutely must because no one else is able to.

If not then he could have literally ruined the churches entire ship building program by using remotes to drop a woodworm equivalent onto all the timber the church had gathered for its naval forces, or flat out created nanites which owl remotes could control to eat away at the wood.

he could have destroyed entire stockpiles of gunpowder by creating a spark, could have implicated inquisitors and such as double agents and caused complete chaos had he chosen to.

but that would not really benefit safehold as a whole as it would have been a quick fix and would not have been the way to make native safeholdians actually push themselves and make the effort to push beyond their boundaries.

though on this vein of thought...

he could use nannites to eat away at the metal and ruin its integrity if he really wanted to. but would than mean that God had forsaken the Harchongese or that Shan-wei had struck against them for being so pious?

Third possibility, secret Shan-wei worshipers have sabotaged the ship. Send in the Inquisition!!!

Morden wrote:interesting possibility, but I dont think Merlin would do it, in many ways he believes in following the rules and helping others take advantage of possibilities. He only steps in and takes direct action when he absolutely must because no one else is able to.

If not then he could have literally ruined the churches entire ship building program by using remotes to drop a woodworm equivalent onto all the timber the church had gathered for its naval forces, or flat out created nanites which owl remotes could control to eat away at the wood.

he could have destroyed entire stockpiles of gunpowder by creating a spark, could have implicated inquisitors and such as double agents and caused complete chaos had he chosen to.

but that would not really benefit safehold as a whole as it would have been a quick fix and would not have been the way to make native safeholdians actually push themselves and make the effort to push beyond their boundaries.

though on this vein of thought...

he could use nannites to eat away at the metal and ruin its integrity if he really wanted to. but would than mean that God had forsaken the Harchongese or that Shan-wei had struck against them for being so pious?

The tithes from the South Harchong Empire have to go by sea to get to Zion. Sea travel in the Gulf of Dohlar has already become more difficult with the Earl of Sharpfield in possession of Claw Island and when the Heavy Cruisers show up (sometime July to September as a guess) the Gulf will be closed to all non-Charis shipping.

iranuke wrote:The tithes from the South Harchong Empire have to go by sea to get to Zion. Sea travel in the Gulf of Dohlar has already become more difficult with the Earl of Sharpfield in possession of Claw Island and when the Heavy Cruisers show up (sometime July to September as a guess) the Gulf will be closed to all non-Charis shipping.

Actually, they normally don't. They can get to the Temple via canal and overland, although the travel is a bear in winter. At the moment there is a combination of winter weather and a couple of Allied armies in the way, of course.

The same is/was true for Desnair's tithe. They preferred to send it by sea for security reasons (ships may sink, but they're a lot less subject to pilferage than overland convoys or canal boats with all those transfers and stops) and especially when there was a need for speed (blue water transport is normally, although not always, faster over the same distance than canal traffic), but the overland route would work just fine if it weren't for those pesky Allied armies and the snow.

Hello RunsForCelery!

Doesn't the land route pass through the equator and tropics?

As far as we know the alliance armies haven't advanced that far yet, so I assume they've moved a ways west thus far in HFQ.

Cool!

Neat!

Thanks!

Given two medium sized ships were collecting the Desnari tithe, can we estimate the tonnage they were going to carry?

Would 50 tons of bullion each be near the mark?

Or 100 tons?

I think 200 tons or more each would require it to be used in part as ballast.

But that doesn't seem enough for something the size of the Desnari empire, though it might not have been a whole year's tithe.

Thanks ahead of time for any further data dumps whenever you can.

More snippets please.

L

runsforcelery wrote:

iranuke wrote:The tithes from the South Harchong Empire have to go by sea to get to Zion. Sea travel in the Gulf of Dohlar has already become more difficult with the Earl of Sharpfield in possession of Claw Island and when the Heavy Cruisers show up (sometime July to September as a guess) the Gulf will be closed to all non-Charis shipping.

Actually, they normally don't. They can get to the Temple via canal and overland, although the travel is a bear in winter. At the moment there is a combination of winter weather and a couple of Allied armies in the way, of course.

The same is/was true for Desnair's tithe. They preferred to send it by sea for security reasons (ships may sink, but they're a lot less subject to pilferage than overland convoys or canal boats with all those transfers and stops) and especially when there was a need for speed (blue water transport is normally, although not always, faster over the same distance than canal traffic), but the overland route would work just fine if it weren't for those pesky Allied armies and the snow.