Fanages and Canons: A measure and economic system for Westeros
For some time now I have been working on a system of sizes and economics that I would like you to see, I would like to read your comments and see what you think:
First of all, this system is supported by two values: the fanega and the canon.
The fanega is equivalent to 250 kilograms of cereal per year, the calculation of what an average person would need to subsist for a year.
A canon is equal to a fanega, except that instead of measuring cereal, it measures livestock.
The wealth of a fief will be evaluated through the calculated quantity of fanegas that it can produce based on:
The quality of the soil.
The cultivable extension.
The irrigation system and the climatic conditions.
Once the amount of possible bushels produced annually is measured, it would be used to determine the wealth of a lord and these would be measured by official appraisers of the king
For example: A fief of 10,000 hectares with an average calculated yield of 500 kilograms of wheat per hectare would produce 5,000 tons of wheat per year, so it can be said that it produces 20,000 bushels per year, which means that it can easily feed 20,000 peasants per year
The wealth of a fief would then be measured in bushels produced annually, for example: A fief that produces 10,000 bushels per year would have 2.5 million kilograms of cereal, enough to feed 10,000 people.
In addition, thanks to this, the military potential and support that a territory has could also be calculated. Each soldier needs the equivalent of a bushel per year for his sustenance. In addition, additional costs must be considered (horses, equipment, logistics), which could increase according to the professionalism of the soldier.
- levies without more weapons than what they bring with them would cost 1 bushel each.
- armed soldiers 1.5 bushels.
- armed and trained soldiers 3 bushels.
- knights could cost up to 5 bushels.
So theoretically, if a lord produced 10,000 bushels per year and allocated 15% to military expenses, he could deploy:
1,500 levies
or
1,000 soldiers
or
500 men-at-arms
or
300 knights
Along with that, an average percentage would be assessed that a lord should give to his feudal lord or the king. being that it can be from 10% to 20% of the bushels it produces per year
so if a fief must pay 20% of its production as tribute, a fief that generates 10,000 bushels would deliver 2,000 bushels per year to the king
the fiefs would be organized according to their production of bushels
small fiefs: less than 10,000
medium fiefs: more than 10,000 up to 100,000
large fiefs: more than 100,000
now this is only the bushels now let's talk about the canon
a canon is equal to a bushel, only that the canons are used to measure the value of the cattle, using the average of
a dairy cow = 1 canon
Sheep/Goat: 0.5 canons
Pig: 0.75 canons
Horses of English:work: 2 canon
War horses: 3 canon
the value of each of the animals is added and converted to the sum of the total fanages of the fiefs so even if a fief has a low grain production it can have a high fanage thanks to the livestock
but you might wonder what happens with trade, here it also comes into play since as mentioned before an ordinary person needs at least 3 golden dragons a year to live well which means that 3 golden dragons are equal to a fanage so if a territory earns 9,000 golden dragons in pure trade it is said that it produces 3000 fanages that go to the account
for the territories that subsist on fishing it would be the same, every 250 kilograms of fish are 1 fanage
and so you could calculate in real numbers the wealth of a house
I hear comments about this system.