Revenue of Realms

*By Loudros of Dian (TheEpicofBeowulf)*

## Preface

For the lands from which I hail, generations have been focused on the most effective ways to make money. I am an Electii, and many say wealth is so integral to us that we were formed into the manifestation of Gold; however, the manifestation of Gold seems to limit the accruement of it to those lucky few in my lands, or the ones with noble blood in others. For generations, peoples have been under the hand of serfdom, and whilst it enriches the power of the aristocracy, it does not enrich the power of the Realm, which each Emperor, Alderon, and Atrioch should be focused on. This treatise will focus on an Amaran Merchant’s perspective on the accruement of wealth, the key laws around wealth, and how it may support a country to liberate itself into the future age of wealth accumulation.

### Chapter One

When you enter a marketplace, you often time hear peddlers yelling out their wares. This may attract some, who are thankful for a certain type of product, or it could bear no fruit, and people walk on past. This is due to someone’s Demand for a product, which can be higher in certain products, like Plating, and lower in other products, like Honey. The Demand for a product can change, but generally, a higher demand should lead to an increase in price, otherwise a shortage will occur. If prices are too high in comparison to demand, however, then a surplus will occur, and the product will not be effectively sold.

Surplus and shortage points can be changed, however, by increasing or decreasing the supply of an item in a market. Supply can also affect prices, like Demand, in the sense that if we are in Winter, supply for grain will be considerably lower than it would be in Spring, resulting in a higher cost for grain in Winter and a lower cost of grain in Spring. Supply and Demand operate together, forming to a point where Demand for a product can be satisfied whilst Supply is at an amount to not exceed demand. Surpluses and shortages are bad for markets, as they result in volatile price changes that do not ensure the stability of a market and equal access to items for all people.

Kingdoms have various policies in place that harm the finding of this equilibrium, which we will dive into further in the coming chapters.

### Chapter Two

In today's exchange, prices serve as ones set by Kingdoms, enforcing on merchants a set way to sell their goods without deviation. Kindly, this is referred to as “Price Caps.” Price Caps are a means for Kingdoms to retain control, make sure that needed goods can easily be purchased, and that fluctuations in prices do not bankrupt a market. However, Price Caps serve as nothing but harm to individualized merchants, instead forcing them to hamper their wholesale and harm the wages of their workers. A key understanding of how a market operates is to know that one man’s spending is another man’s income -- if I was to sell you a fish for five quill, that is my income, but it is also the income of my workers. Spreading out this income on a larger scale, if I was able to change my prices based on how much people were getting paid, I may afford to pay my workers more based on their work, and thus, they would be able to spend more, generating more revenue in taxes to the realm. Price Caps, then, eliminate this possibility, as they keep goods at a rate unchanged, and do not encourage better pay to their workers, resulting in more taxes overall.

These Price Caps also do not allow for innovation in the market sphere. Let us return to that fish I was selling you -- let’s say down the street was another fish vendor, who was selling at a lower price, but his fish were less fresh than mine. In this instance you now have the decision that you can make -- do you value a decreased price or an increased quality? Price Caps do not allow for this same type of bartering, instead, they set prices similar to one another and do not allow for deviation, meaning I have no reason to increase the quality of my production if someone else can undercut me and still make the same amount on sales as I do. The only fair solution, then, is to cut out price controls from Realm Governance -- and allow for a market that decides on its own what it wants to set the prices at.

Price Caps harm the equilibrium mentioned in Chapter One by preventing a fluctuation in prices to that naturally mentioned equilibrium. Kingdom overreach in these areas gives us the negatives of surpluses and shortages, whilst damaging tax revenue through spending, overall harming the stability and wealth of the Realm more than the benefits it brings in.

### Chapter Three

Serfdom and slavery are a constant throughout our Azura. Whether it be Aridian slavery in the mines, it be Lattish Serfdom in the fields, or indentured servitude on Silvic lumbering yards, any form of coerced or forced labor is not only a moral defeat, but an economic one, too.

Governments retain and support the idea of forced labor because they believe it reduces costs by not having to pay workers. In a sense, this is true, though this is a short-term, not a long-term gain. Forced labour results in a large segment of the population not having access to a wage, and as we saw before, one man’s spending is another man’s income. With rich manor masters keeping their serfs and slaves to a certain area without pay, they deprived craftsmen and merchants of the necessary incomes these Serfs could earn, which is then reflected in income for the Realm by taxes.

By eliminating forced labour, we can also move towards a system of competitive employment, which means that already employed labourers will require newfound efforts towards production and efficiency at their jobs to retain them from the influx of newly liberated workers in the economy. As more money is spent, and greater opportunity arises, eliminating serfdom eliminates decadence, which results in a more productive working class, a more attentive upper class, and a burgeoning and newly tax-paying middle class for the realm to operate on for war, income, and development.

### Chapter Four

There exists a quite popular form of tax, called a tariff, levied by realms on the goods of foreign lands. These tariffs are thought to induce the primacy of goods from their realm and take in a significant amount of revenue on top of it. Instead, these tariffs increase costs artificially, decreasing the standard of living in realms, as their citizens have to rely on goods from their home country that are not produced as effectively as they are in foreign lands, or are forced to import goods with the added tax being factored into a merchant’s price.

This idea of anti-tariff also goes along with the theory of specialization -- that each realm should focus on its section of things to produce, then export them to other realms so that they may garner revenue and other realms can receive items cheaply. Combined, policies that get rid of tariffs and focus on specialization are referred to as Free Trade, and is a way for all countries to benefit from decreased goods cost, and increased standard of living, which brings about more stability and a higher standard of living.

### Conclusion

The new economic world is upon us -- and in the time of Umbusan retraction and defeats, we must look upon a new world ahead of us, one dedicated to cooperation and enrichment of our realms, that benefit each citizen, business, and the realm as a whole.

I call upon Emperor William Lattern, Alderon Elros ep Silvawyn, and Praefectum Ariius Solzen aep Aetos to end the histories of overreaching control on their markets, adopt the reforms herein, and move towards freeing their economies for new individuals, not just the squabbling nobles, to have a say in their economic lives. In the end -- you, rulers, are the benefactors of an economic boom.