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The Silver Dominion

The great and grand Silver Dominion has a steel clad stranglehold on the continent's metal economy. In possession of WWI era industry and technology themselves, they keep their vast array of subjects in the bronze age, responding to attempts to forge iron or mix gunpowder with extreme prejudice, and the thievery of technology with draconian, scorched-earth measures.

The Dominion has little interest in how their subjects govern themselves, with many Kingdoms, Confederations, and City-states under their rule. They simply demand that they each provide food and laborers as taxes per their population. The Dominion's true method of control is popular support. You see, the Dominion is the self appointed protector of the continent, quelling any infestation of monstrous creatures where they may spread. But the real popular support comes from the "Copper Ration". Each citizen gets a certain number of copper coins per year from the Dominion. These go directly into the hands of the citizens, not by proxy via their local governments.

Question

But, in a far away coastal Bronze Age City-State Republic, how will the Dominion representatives ensure that each citizen gets their ration exactly once per year? The the logistics and politics of distribution itself isn't of interest, but how to make sure no one gets double rations.

More Context from Questions

As a specific example, the Dominion might once per year dock a warship in the harbor of a city. On the docks, each citizen must come and get their ration of copper coins. But how can the Dominion distributers ensure that each person hasn't already come through the line?

The Solution

When the Dominion docks their warships outside of the coastal city, setting up dozens of lines on the docks for people to receive their ration, each person first presents their "Nickel", a nickel coin inlaid with copper with their birth name and other identifiers, far too metallurgically difficult to recreate without machinery. This ID (as described in Nosajimiki's answer) helps to pit the people against their local government in favor of the Dominion, and helps with Logistical concerns. They are then marked on the cheek with indelible ink to ensure that they don't come back through. In this way, the Dominion both is able to manage handing out the coins, and also better accomplishes their goal of garnering popular support.

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  • $\begingroup$ How big of a city are we talking about? For a city of thousands, you may be able to just line everyone up and hand out rations, but not for a city of millions. Do you need to prove citizenship in some way, or is it just everyone in the city gets a ration? $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 13:59
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    $\begingroup$ I don't think it can be done. If the copper coins are currency, then your question is "How can I eradicate corruption?" You can't, not unless you rule the whole planet with an iron fist rather than in a decentralised manner. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 14:26
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    $\begingroup$ I still think that the question needs more clarifications. The distribution system is of importance because different solutions will be needed depending on whether the Dominion distributes rations themselves or uses local governments for distribution. You state that the Dominion representatives are 'well armed but few' but none of the answers so far considers this point. Does the Dominion even have the manpower to implement any of the suggested solutions? $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 17:11
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    $\begingroup$ @Otkin the question already answers that. Please re-read the second paragraph. It is established that this 'Dominion' controls these areas, but if it was not clear yes they have the manpower for handing out free copper coins in an orderly fashion. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 13:17
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    $\begingroup$ Keep in mind that at a large enough scale, it will be enough to simply make sure "most people get theirs" and a slightly higher percentage don't get extra. Perfection isn't the key here, so much as trust that everyone gets their share and that there aren't many cheats that get away with it. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 13:49

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Indelible ink. This is used today to prevent double voting in some national elections.

The basic idea is that everyone who wants their yearly ration presents uncolored hands and after receiving their ration one of their fingers is dipped in an ink that will remain on their skin for long enough for the rest of the rations to be distributed.

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  • $\begingroup$ This is exactly what I had planned to answer, but now I wonder -- what about amputees, birth defects, and the like? Inking the face, or ideally the middle of the back would be more reliable and require fewer decisions. And a change of ink color each year would limit the ability of "protection agencies" to pre-mark people who haven't paid their "insurance". $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 15:58
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    $\begingroup$ @ZeissIkon Why would you pre-mark someone when you could just show up after ration-day and take their ration? $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 16:10
  • $\begingroup$ Why would you make veiled threats to burn down someone's business if they don't pay protection? For control, to ensure they do pay protection, or in this case, to make someone dependent on the "charity" of the criminal organization. "Sorry to hear you missed your copper, but we'll help you out, as long as you do a little something for us from time to time." Changing inks won't eliminate extortion, but it'll make it require a little more effort on the part of the criminals. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 16:17
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    $\begingroup$ Businesses are a lot less fungible than cash. Much easier to extract cash from someone who just got paid, than from someone who definitely won't get paid. If the goal of an extortion racket is to extract money from a populace you want to make sure that there's money to extract. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 16:20
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    $\begingroup$ @bukwyrm From the link I provided above, roughly 3 days, on the finger with stains on the nail and cuticle lasting 2-4 weeks, which with WW1 level logistic coordination should be good enough to distribute to every resident of a city state. Remember each citizen only needs to show their hands, get a pre-measured portion of currency, then get marked. This is a very parallelizable process. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 17:23
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WWI Tech is good enough for a National ID system to work

It does not matter that the territories are bronze age, what matters is the technology of the capitol. In fact, lower tech territories helps ensure that counterfeiting national IDs is harder than it was historically.

Paper Currency dates back to 960AD in Asia, 1661AD in Europe, and 1690AD in America. The basic tenant of making a usable paper currency system is that you must be able to recreate by some mechanical means a pattern that is too precise and complex to be practically recreated. So, pretty much any civilization capable of lithography is also capable of making mass produced paper documents that are hard enough to counterfeit, that societies across the globe trusted them in lue of coins by WWI.

The idea is simple: each official birth record is printed in the capitol using the same lithographic pattern. When each member state goes to pay their taxes, it is based on population; so, as people are born, they must send to the capitol requests for birth certificates. Then the person's PPI is handwritten or stamped in the appropriate places and sent back to the local government to be given to the new born subjects.

Because it is in the best interests of a local government to distribute as few birth records as possible (so they can pay lower taxes), they will not want to request more birth records than are legitimate, but because the commoners all know that they need their birth records to collect a copper ration, they will be VERY insistent that their local government issue them. So, by in large you are pitting the commoners' interests against those of the local government to make it in everyone's best interest to make sure only 1 record per person is issued.

Then, when a person dies, it is the responsibility of the local government to record the death, seize the birth record, and send it back to the capitol. Again, the local government WANTs to record deaths to reduce the tax burden.

To prevent minority populations from being excluded, the federal government would send exactly as much copper as it should for the population on file, and if more people to show up to claim copper than are on record, then the local government must BOTH cover the cost of the copper tax and pay for the under declared taxes. If the disparity is big enough, the local government may also harshly disciplined for negligent census handling. You could furthermore have census verifiers go door to door every now and then and sample who can and can not produce identification. If a community has a disproportionate number of people who can not produce ID when asked, then the local government also gets in trouble.

So now you have a very hard to counterfeit document that you can make sure that almost everyone has 1 and only 1 of, and comes out of circulation once no longer valid. Then on the back of each birth record, you stamp the year when handing out copper rations so that each certificate can only be used once per year.

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Why is this a better answer than other answers so far?

When it comes to providing absolute proof that each ration is distributed once and only once, it is not. But the more important factor to consider is WHY the copper ration exists to begin with:

The Dominion's true method of control is popular support... the real popular support comes from the "Copper Ration". Each citizen gets a certain number of copper coins per year from the Dominion. These go directly into the hands of the citizens, not by proxy via their local governments.

While the actual payout of the copper tax improves popular support, the federal government is still in competition with the local government for the GREATER popular support, because when rebellions breaks out, people will side with who the like more, not just who they like. This national ID system puts all of the burden and consequences of mistakes on the local government; so, whenever a person can not collect their ration, or has to jump through too many hoops to make it happed, it is not the Dominion's fault for not providing the copper, it is the local government's incompetence for not processing their paperwork properly. So the national IDs themselves become part of the process for undermining the power of local authorities. After all, the DMV will never beat FEMA in a popularity contest.

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    $\begingroup$ But what about loss, destruction, or theft of the original birth record documents? Raises a problem with the "everyone gets a ration" part of the need... $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 16:20
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    $\begingroup$ I think bronze age societies would be overwhelmed with the bureaucracy, and OP wants the societies to stay as they are. Your proposal has too much weight on an orderly local government. Wars, people migrations, etc. will wreak havoc with this system, undermining the populaces trust in the Dominion $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 17:14
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    $\begingroup$ @bukwyrm Legally required Birth records goes all the way back to Ancient Rome. When Rome conquered a nation, they often left the existing government in place, but heaped on tons of Roman bureaucracy. This gave Rome a lot of power over these territories because the people would perceive their autonomy as intact when in reality, their lords and kings were brought down to the role of glorified accountants. Many Roman territories were no more advanced than they were in the bronze age. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 18:07
  • $\begingroup$ @Nosajimiki do you have a citation for rewuired birth records in roman vassal states? I have never heard that for anything beyond the urbs itself $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 5:08
  • $\begingroup$ @bukwyrm This (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_registration_in_ancient_Rome) talks about the existence of Roman Birth certificates, but the information is incomplete because the page does not take into account Lex Papia Poppaea (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_Papia_Poppaea) which gives specific privileges and penalties based on having children. During the reign of emperor Antoninus Pius (mid-2nd century AD), it was legally required that all children be register by name within 30 days of birth under Lex Papia Poppaea. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 15:39
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Your skin is your logbook

How and why none of the Dominions regional representatives has their fingers in the cookie jar is for your world building to explain. I understand the question as one of pure logistics: how to make sure everyone gets their share, and only their share.

The copper is mined, refined, and minted at many locations. They always mint about 10% more than they think they'll be distributing, according to their last census. Every year there is a new design of coin. from each minting location, armies march forth, in their midst huge wheeled strongboxes full of coinage. They halt every evening, make camp, and after dark, anyone may approach unarmed. The distributor counts out the coins, heats them, and with a special tong lays them on the portion of skin that is this years' logbook. The recipient waits until the coins have cooled off and goes on their way. The distributor notes the expense. This can go at a brisk pace, because the distributor can go from recipient to recipient, laying on coins, and need not wait for the cooling. (The process of people approching, with empty current logpage, and then leaving with coins and branding, can be noted by as many people from as many corners of the globe as you like, with as many checks and balances in as byzantine a web as deemed appropriate)

Anyone approaching with any years' log-page unfilled can retroactively get their share (in current coinage), if they can take the pain.

There is, of course, several alternate log-locations, if you happen to have lost the limb/the piece of skin that represents the current (!) logpage.

Children under 6 are precluded, as their skin does not take to brandings reliably.

The army breaks camp as soon as the evenings haul goes below 100 recipients. Stragglers will have to follow, or wait a year.

Documentation of the excursions informs next years minting, and the path the army will take.

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    $\begingroup$ Very brutal, but very efficient. I wonder how they'll reconcile branding with using the distribution of wealth as a method of maintaining popular support in their vassal states... A dark world indeed. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 15:48
  • $\begingroup$ I receive my ration and it leaves a mark on this year's location on my left bicep. Two days later I lose my arm in an industrial accident. I return the ration camp, deny receiving this year's ration, and demand a ration and a log in an alternate location. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 13:49
  • $\begingroup$ I do not believe body disfigurement answers the "popular support" aspect of the question. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 16:09
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Tattoo everyone with a unique mark of iron.

Put some iron alloyed with things to minimize rusting in oil filled capsules under each person's skin in a unique tattoo. Then you can check each person according to your records. A simple test with an electromagnet should reveal if the tattoo is truly iron under their skin, and any fakery can lead to an execution.

Of course, accidents may destroy some. You should open by tattooing any children who have come of age and anyone who has lost a limb or missed a previous levy.

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    $\begingroup$ i like the iron-angle, as iron is the supposed USP of the Dominion, but my guess would be that iron filings rust and become un-magentic $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 16:21
  • $\begingroup$ I added a suggestion for that. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 16:25
  • $\begingroup$ How would they with world war 1 level technology determine the uniqueness of an electromagnetic tattoo, and check against some centralized record, in a timely fashion? $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 16:31
  • $\begingroup$ Because it is the right shape, and matches their other records on the person. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 26, 2021 at 16:34
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    $\begingroup$ @bukwyrm Some rust is ferrimagnetic and relatively inert; just use that. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 4:33

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