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$\begingroup$ @StephanKolassa no I don't - that's the beauty of the second part (I've tried to make it a little clearer) - the right to collect taxes is auctioned off, the government takes the amount bid, and the collector gets to keep however much he gathers beyond that (or bears the loss if he doesn't). All that's required of him here is to report the census count afterwards. He keeps the excess by design, so no motive to underreport. $\endgroup$

user111403
– user111403

2026-02-28 14:12:45 +00:00
Commented 14 hours ago
2

$\begingroup$ @StephanKolassa you still want some kind of ballpark external control, but it's a lot quicker and easier for a government inspector to check - "yep, looks like there are about 200 people in this village" when villagers have no incentive to hide from him, then to try and count each person individually. This is still less precise than the answers above, but it's also building a tax system to solve the problem, rather than building the entire society around the problem, which is IMO better. $\endgroup$

user111403
– user111403

2026-02-28 14:21:49 +00:00
Commented 14 hours ago
1

$\begingroup$ What have the romans ever done for sus? $\endgroup$

Pica
– Pica

2026-02-28 18:50:26 +00:00
Commented 10 hours ago
1

$\begingroup$ @Pica - The Aquaduct? $\endgroup$

TheDemonLord
– TheDemonLord

2026-02-28 23:32:22 +00:00
Commented 5 hours ago

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