The Anatomy of a Peasant Economy

I found this while doing research on fiefs. I've been trying to decide upon a reasonable fief size. So I've been looking at feudal Japan and the fiefs - called han - during the Edo era and earlier. I stumbled upon this research paper: "Anatomy of a Peasant Economy - a Rice Village in the Philippines" while doing this research. 

This paper dates from 1978 and looks at a typical rice village in Laguna province of the Philippines. There is a nice map of the village and very good statistical information on the number of families and, of course, crop yields, planting seasons and the like. 

I think this could be a good example of what a typical village in the Mssúma delta might look like. The barrio is one of thirteen in the municipality of Pila. It is a relatively small village with only 95 households and a population of 549 (in 1974.) The households are divided between farmers (large and small) and landless workers. There are 54 of the former and 41 of the latter.

My thinking is that a similar Tsolyáni village - say one of those surrounding the village of Nisuél - might be of similar size, or perhaps slightly larger. Larger would be better, actually, as this takes up a really small patch of land and if all villages were this size then I have a lot more to draw! This village only covers a couple of hectares and the delta contains over 78,000 hectares! Some of that is lost to rivers, lakes and streams, marshes, secondary roads and footpaths, irrigation and transportation canals, the villages themselves, forested areas and orchards. It is still a lot of area...

The Economic Aspects of the History of the Civilization of Japan, Volume 1

By Yosaburō Takekoshi

Why am I interested in a 1930's book with the esoteric title "The Economic Aspects of the History of the Civilization of Japan" you ask? And what has it got to do with Tékumel? 

What indeed! :-)  (Did I mention that there are at least 3 volumes in the series?) :-)

Fortunately, I think I am only interested in Volume One, which covers the earlier phases of Japan's rich history. I discovered this book while conducting deeper research into koku. See my previous post on the subject for my reasons. Google actually offers a pretty good preview of the text - except there are gaps in all the wrong places. Here are some sample pages: 

...page 418 unfortunately not part of the preview. :-(

These pages show the koku associated with all the fiefs of feudal Japan in the Toyotomi Age. Unfortunately, page 418 is not included in the preview and that would be the page to detail the Shogun's holdings and those of the wealthiest lords. These preview pages are not without use, however, even with that gap. 

For example, page 421 states that the total number of lords is 61. But it goes on to say that the land was divided between the Shogun (Hideyoshi) and 160 others. This I don't exactly understand. Pages 419 and 420 of the preview have 50 entries each and page 421 has I think 30 more. The missing page 418 could have another 50, giving a total of 180. Looking at the entries, some are shown by identifying the province and others are not, perhaps indicating that some lords have multiple fiefs under their control. I assume that is also the case with the Shogun, so while there are 61 lords (plus the Shogun?) there are 161 fiefdoms? Is that what it is saying? 

There are other tantalizing details in the preview but in every case the missing pages get in the way of full understanding. :-(

I discovered that a copy of the original edition is available for about 700-800 GBP but I don't have that kind of cash. I have managed to order a copy of a later reprinted edition which as just over $25 plus postage. :-) That will not arrive until the New Year - February, actually if the delivery estimate is accurate. (Hopefully not!)

Koku...thinking about Fiefs

I have recently been reading a book about the 47 Ronin and that account reminded me of the feudal Japanese unit of measure – koku – which was used as a unit of wealth and represented “the amount of rice required to feed one man for one year”.

I’ve encountered this term before. The old Shogun boardgame used koku as a game element, as a points system to buy game pieces. Wouldn't it be nice, I thought, to have something similar to measure the relative wealth of temples, clans or individuals in a Tékumel game?

Myself, I prefer to avoid bookkeeping and keeping track of Káitars (the standard Tsolyáni gold coin) seems like it would get a bit tedious. And how do you figure out how much a clan brings in each year?

Greg Stafford’s Pendragon role-playing game uses an abstract system of represent fiefs and towns. Population is described using a POP stat, and there are Hydes and Hyrds stats to track crops and livestock respectively.

Lee Gold’s Lands of Adventure role-playing game used a Wealth stat. I’ve seen other games do similar things more recently but that was the first occurrence I can remember. Pelgrane’s The Dying Earth RPG, uses a Wherewithal stat which I think serves the same purpose.

In Japan the koku was a somewhat abstract concept. Fiefs that could not grow rice were still accessed a koku value (per wiki) and samurai were paid a stipend in koku. A clan's status was linked to the koku value of the fief or to the stipend paid.

In essence the koku value assigned to a fief was in many ways an indicator of the relative power of the fief. This is a useful concept that I think can be adapted for Tékumel. (Something that I don't think has been done yet...)