Income
From Eressea
Work, Entertainment and Collecting Taxes
You can earn money by working in the agricultural sector (see the WORK order). However, the bigger the forests in a region are, the smaller the area that can be used for farming, and the smaller amount of peasants (and player units) which are able to work: for each tree, eight peasants or persons in a unit are not able to work in that region (for each young tree: 4). How many persons can work in a region (i.e. without any woods) depends on the type of region. For more information, look at the WORK order.
Normally, a peasant earns 11 silver each turn. This wage may be increased by a castle bonus. A fully constructed citadel raises the wage up to 16 silver for each peasant per turn. See this section for a chart detailing the effects of castles upon local production. If, for instance, a citadel has been built in a plain and all the trees are cut down, 10000 peasants are able to supply themselves and another 6000 persons.
However, the player controlled units earn less; in the end they are just unskilled workers. How much they are able to earn can be seen in the report. You can determine how much your units will earn by WORKING by looking at this table for the WORK order.
Armed and trained henchmen can squeeze 20 silver out of the peasants for each man and skill level of taxation. For example, 6 men with level 3 taxation can earn a total of 360 silver a turn if there is that much money left to be taxed in a region. In order to tax, the unit needs the taxation skill, weapons, and the corresponding weapon skills (i.e. melee, polearm, bow, or crossbow).
Similarly, each faction can guard a region. If a unit is issued a GUARD order it will guard the region the next turn. Guarding units are instantly visible to everyone. They prevent other factions from collecting taxes. Other factions may be allowed to tax a region if the GUARDing unit has also issued a HELP GUARD order to allow the specified factions to tax.
If a region is being guarded by more than one faction, only the factions that received HELP GUARD from the guarding factions can collect taxes.
If the number of peasants in a region is close to the maximum capacity, the silver reserves in the region are going to be needed to support and feed the peasants. This leaves no silver available to be taxed, the population is already struggling to support itself. Units may still tax, but this causes peasants to starve to death, reducing the amount of silver produced next turn. In this situation, it is extremely useful to build a castle in order to raise the efficiency and wages of the local peasants. A wage increase of only +1 (i.e. to 12 silver per peasant) would cause 2,000 peasants to earn an additional 2,000 silver for you to tax.
The silver that remains after feeding and paying taxing units is then available for entertainment. Up to 5% of this remaining silver can be be earned by entertainers using the ENTERTAIN order. Each entertainer can earn up to 20 silver per skill level in entertainment.
| Region Type | Trees | Peasants | Wage | Total Income | Food costs | Taxes | Entertainment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | 200 | 3,742 | 11 | 41,162 | 37,420 | 3,742 | 187 |
| Plain | 200 | 3,742 | 14 | 52,388 | 37,420 | 14,968 | 784 |
| Forest | 818 | 3,742 | 11 | 38,016 | 37,420 | 596 | 29 |
| Forest | 818 | 3,742 | 12 | 41,472 | 37,420 | 4,052 | 202 |
In the last example, the total income is smaller because not all the peasants can work. This is because too many trees are preventing them from growing food.
The chart also does not take into consideration the peasants' savings. They will live on these savings when overpopulation strikes. The silver available for entertainment are also affected by the amount of savings the peasantry has.
In your reports, these savings appear in the region's description after the amount the of peasants. This silver can be collected via taxation without any danger of starving the peasantry. However, peasants will emigrate to neighboring regions when those regions are richer.
See
- Income and Expenses
- Expenses
- Income
- Theft
- Trade
- Pools
