Slaves in the domain

Having read the info on slaves on the forums here: -

http://www.autarch.co/forum/slaves-0

I noted the ongoing cost of labour slaves to be 2gp/month each: -

“They cost 2gp each per month and have morale scores of -4.”

In addition they can replace peasant families: -

“When used on a domain, treat every 5 slave laborers as equivalent to one peasant family for all purposes.”

Given the costs per month of 5 slaves * 2gp = 10gp/month for a peasant family equivalent. (We can assume the up front purchase cost is covered separately)

A Peasant family in a 6 land revenue domain produces 6gp in land revenue, 4gp in services, taxes 2gp. Therefore worth 12gp per month to their lord.

A Slave “family” for wont of a better word produces 6gp in land revenue, I assume none in services (they are basic labour) or taxes.

If they produce 6gp per month … but cost 10gp … they are not the cheap labor they are supposed to be!

I assume I misread something … could one of you nice Autarch gentlemen please enlighten me?

I fear that you are making this more complex than you ought to, and thus confusing yourself!

There’s no need to calculate the cost of upkeep of the slaves, and then secondarily calculating their land value production, discounting taxes, and so on. When used on a domain, you simply treat every 5 slave laborers as equivalent to one peasant family for all purposes.

The rules will make more sense if you read them as follows:

Slaves as Individuals: Individually, slave laborers can be used for any labor-related tasks. They cost 2gp each per month in upkeep and have morale scores of -4.

Slaves on a Domain: When used on a domain, treat every 5 slave laborers as equivalent to one peasant family for all purposes. If a domain’s population consists of 25% or more slave laborers, its domain morale is decreased by 1. If a domain’s population consists of 50% or more slave laborers, its domain morale is decreased by 2. If the domain is 100% slave labor, domain morale is decreased by 4.

The two rules are mutually exclusive. Thus, if Marcus, the Adventurer, buys a slave it costs him 40gp. He then pays 2gp per month for upkeep. The slave has -4 morale. The player and Judge then role-play at the individual level what tasks the slave does that make it worthwhile

If King Marcus has 1,000 slaves, they produce as if they were 200 peasant families. King Marcus isn’t worrying about paying “upkeep” on these slaves. Their upkeep comes out of whatever’s left over after he’s extracted his wealth from them.

Yes, there is an abstraction involved in that slaves aren’t really paying “taxes”, but just pretend you’re a libertarian and believe that taxation is slavery. :slight_smile:

I'm sorry, but I don't get it - what is the point of enslaving someone? "5 slave laborers as equivalent to one peasant family for all purposes" means slaves are basically the same peasants but with a penalty to domain morale. For example population of Ur is 13k families, let's suppose half of them are slaves. What is the point of keeping slaves, if you still have to pay the same 26k gp for garrison, 13k gp liturgies, 13k gp tithes and possibly 39k gp tribute you would pay if they were the usual 'free' peasants?

I think the point is you can buy slaves and move them to your land, giving you instant population. Peasant immigration is slower and less certain.

Its even better if you have a stronger army then your neighbor kingdom: Then you dont even have to pay for the slaves!

[quote="Scott"]

I think the point is you can buy slaves and move them to your land, giving you instant population. Peasant immigration is slower and less certain.

[/quote]

Nah, it's not. A slave family will cost you 200gp. So you can buy 5 slave families for 1000 gp - the average (1d10) you get from 1000 gp agricultural investment. If you capture slaves while pillaging a domain - yes, it can boost your population and income. But there is still no point in keeping the captured as slaves after you relocate them to work on your plantations.