On a more serious note than my norm, might I praise Saint Peter's Fair, a novel by Ellis Peters in the Brother Cadfael series? Murder, violence, conspiracy, international affairs, and a dispute over who gets to have the license fees from the fair. Good stuff!

From an economic standpoint they are still better off. If you are off the trade route, you have no opportunity to engage in trade. For example, you may be very skilled at making carvings but without acces to a market you must spend your time working your land with little chance to make carvings. But if a caravan comes in every spring, you can trade with the caravan make enough to pay Olaf to work your fields and still be better off. Its called comparative advantage and it helps you be better off. Without the caravan at all - there is no chance for trade. Remember this isn't an interstate, these are ox drawn carts and people will walk up and do a trade as it moves.

As for royal tolls vs land holders, I suspect it is a case of all the traffic will bear. A Lord may set up a toll booth if he thinks he can get away with it. He may bribe the local sheriff or Bailiff of the Hundred to look the other way. But Tolls at major locations on large merchant caravans will attract the king's eye. Particularly if their is no sheriff to bribe like in Chybisa.
And by a Sarajinian close to the LOP lands...he better behave.

BTW great site on Chybissa

I'm not sure if I missed somebody quoting this already but,




This quote from the HarnDex entry on Mangai clearly in my opinion states that the Mangai rents the fairground from whomever holds the land locally and thats mostly all the landlord gets from the markets and fairs. (Directly that is.)

The mangai onthe other hand gets all the rents from the vendors. This might not much profit the Mangai but atleast the merchants are not at the mercy of the local landowner by themselves. The mangai privilege evens out the rents that the vendors have to pay. (Thats the way I see it anyway.) The rent the Mangai pays must naturally be quite a source of debate between the the lord and the Mangai.

I missed all of the chat about tolls, lost as it was in the discussion about fairs. Exactly who can and cannot levy a toll over an international trail such as the Salt route or Genins trail is obvious. If you have enough men to enforce the imposition of a toll, then you can collect it.

Within the kingdoms, the first question to be answered is who owns the highways? I hope that this won’t be to boring, but, modern era highways are something I know lots about and I’ve always been fascinated by their history.

I’ve always assumed that Harn follows English highway laws, in many cases this is ‘custom & practice’ not statute. A few basic principles:

In all cases, highways within kingdoms are the Kings highway. Highways follow a defined (probably defined only by custom) route, are open for everyone, and grant a right of passage only.

The route of a highway is defined as the route people have customarily used. A new highway is created if people begin to take a detour to avoid a dangerous ford or dilapidated bridge and find a safer/quicker/better route. (IIRC it takes 20 years of unrestricted access to create a highway by these means). Once a highway exists, only the crown can stop people using it. A Lord can make it difficult for travellers to use a particular route, but he cannot lawfully stop them.

Anyone trying to avoid a toll by, using land that is not highway (by, for example cutting across cropland or pasture) is committing the crime of trespass. For a merchant, the delays incurred in taking wagons over unmade ground, plus compessation for loss of crops, grazing etc., almost certainly makes for more expensive delays than would paying the toll.

I would assume that on Harn, local landowners have a duty to maintain the highways through their demesme and, using Balesirs arguments, have the right to levy a reasonable toll on travellers for this purpose. Maintaining a muddy dirt track costs next to nothing, maintaining a bridge can be expensive. As others have said bridges are very good toll locations, after all, people have no alternative but to cross at them. Someone spent a lot of money building that bridge and they’re entitled to a return on their money.

To complicate matters, if you use English law, then the highways are actually owned by the frontagers (you own up to the middle of the road in front of your house). But you have no rights to do anything to prevent access and you may even have a duty to maintain the road for the public good.

Apologies, but I can bore for England on this topic.

Lots more if anyone is interested!

Neil

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Quite the contrary. In fact, putting it in that context has helped me quite a bit. Thanks,

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::Age doesn't always bring wisdom. Sometimes age comes alone -- all by itself.::