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To put a long story short, we have a land bridge between two political bodies. The bodies of whatever surrounding the land bridge is toxic and impassable. Other land bridges exist. The individuals manning the toll-castle are loosely aware of their existence. The merchants themselves are, of course, not a monolithic entity, but most generally accept that there are alternative routes to other political bodies (in simpler terms, other political entities exist).

There is a lot of thoroughfare, we've got traders, merchants, immigrants, raiders all showing up.

The transit toll at present is a 25% tax on cargo value. To keep merchants from understating the value of the cargo on which the tax was computed, the right to purchase the cargo at the stated value is reserved (or outright seized) Anyone importing 'sinful goods' (like alcohol, or cigarettes, or drugs, or pornography) has to pay a additional 25% on top of the baseline 25% (so 50% total).

For those who aren't traders or business people, ie, ordinary travellers/tourists/immigrants. All they have to do, is buy a 'official stamp' to mark out their travel pass, and then pay the head-tax.

So my question is quite simple, what is the most likely reason that people are willing to put up with such high rates)

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  • $\begingroup$ What do the player characters and their knowledge (or lack of knowledge) about other landbridges to dow ith the question? The mentioning of "player characters" makes the question look like it is about what the players would do (which is out of scope for this site) even though the actual question is much more fitting. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 14, 2025 at 6:40
  • $\begingroup$ @datacube because I constantly get told by one of the moderators not to make assumptions, which i interpret to mean that i have to explain why im asking the question and not just info-dump and expect people to write the story for me. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 14, 2025 at 6:47
  • $\begingroup$ still these "player characters" have no connection to the question itself (and shouldn't have to stay on topic). Are these player characters running the toll station? are they traders? (I suppose both answers are no). They simply distract from the question. It is much more relevant whether the TRADERS know about other bridges.(cont) $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 14, 2025 at 7:06
  • $\begingroup$ With the players being mentioned so prominently it seems a bit more like an underlying question like "why would the players put up with the toll?" to which the answer is "we don't know what the player characters will do. Either they will put up with it, or search for another bridge, or try to bribe the officals, or try to smuggle their wares, or whatever the players come up with." $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 14, 2025 at 7:07
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    $\begingroup$ The obvious answer for anyone shipping from point A to point B is that even with the associated costs (transport, spoilage, pilferage etc and in this case taxes) that it is more profitable to sell the goods at point B than it would be to sell them at point A. Similarly, if the question is "why ship from point A to point B by route Y rather than route Z" then it will be because the cost or risk makes route Y preferable. Brainstorming why the costs/risks of one location/route or another would be greater is a story question that is off-topic here. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 14, 2025 at 7:16

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The merchants who are considering using the tollway would be doing a cost-benefit analysis.

For each product that could be shipped via the toll route, merchants would be considering its purchase price, its sale price, and the cost of transport, whether that is via the tollway or via another route. They would also be considering risk vs reward.

If the cost of transport plus the tolls are less than the cost of transport avoiding the tolls, and profit over time is greater than otherwise, then the merchants will prefer to use the tollway.

The risk of loss of the cargo due to criminal activity when using the tollway - the probability of loss times the value of the cargo as part of the cost of transport - should be factored in as part of the cost of transport.

Obviously the purchase and sale prices of each product transported will be set by market forces. That leaves only the cost of transport and the amount of the toll. Since we know that the toll is 25% of the sale price, it stands to reason that unless the cost of transport (including potential losses due to theft) via non-tolled routes is greater than 25% of the final sale price, the tollway will fall into disuse. Merchants do not use tollways when they cut into their profits.

Of course, the goods being shipped via the tollway or other routes would need to be products that are only readily available on one side or the other. Goods that can be produced and consumed locally would not be shipped since they would not be profitable with such a large toll.

However, having large tolls is risky even for those imposing the tolls. The possibility exists that the excessive tolls will encourage smuggling and/or discourage trade entirely. If there are goods that are highly desirable and not produced locally on one side or the other, but aren't worth transporting, their availability will fall and their price will increase to the point at which they are once again profitable... and it is the consumers who will end up paying the price.

Finally, there is the risk that such greed on the part of the authorities who have set up the toll point will prompt the victims of these tolls to consider if the cost of the tolls is greater than the cost of hiring mercenaries to overthrow the toll-point. If the financial and political cost of military action is lower than the tolls, don't expect this toll castle to last very long in its current owners' hands.

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    $\begingroup$ You don’t hire mercenaries to destroy the toll point, you hire them to capture it and then charge your own tolls to everyone else. Somewhat lower tolls, so that it’s not cost-effective for anyone to do the same to you. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 16, 2025 at 8:32
  • $\begingroup$ @MikeScott A very good point. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 16, 2025 at 8:36
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Perishable Goods

The perishable goods from one side of the bridge have a great value on the other. Any and all other paths take too long to get the perishable items across without having them degrade in quality or spoil entirely. While the tax on the items is not the greatest, it is based on the purchase price and not the end sale price. So of these perishable goods? The burden of the cost increase ends up going to the consumer.

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Short answer, they will put up with it if there are no other routes possible, and if profits make it sustainable.

If (cost to purchase) + (cost of toll) + (value of my time) < (amount people will pay) then it will be worth it.

Of course this will also encourage people to look for other ways; Black markets/smugglers for instance.

If there is no other option, and if the cost of toll makes it so the sell price has to be over what people will pay, then they will just stop transporting that good and transport something else. Because that good will become scarce the cost will rise, so it might become profitable to trade again, or the other country might start making their own.

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  • $\begingroup$ If it is not yet, make it the only option: Sabotage/Collapse the other bridges (a fine is cheaper than the profits). For your toll bridges you can undercut their prices until they go out of business. Buy out other bridges. Let those other bridges waste away by denying maintenance. Lobby for laws against bridges to close to each other. Convince the media that a Troll lives under those bridges. Threaten their owners into compliance. Form a cartel, all bridge owners asking high prices. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 16, 2025 at 12:39
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If you have trade across a tariff then you have a situation like the situation sketched below.

If you have a tariff and no trade, that means that the green curve intersects the red curve left of the purple curve.

(Or the purple curve and the red curve never intersect at all - the red curve intersects the zero line left of the purple curve. Consider the supply and demand curves for 20kg gold bricks in a poor farming village.)

(If the green curve and the blue curve are identical, that means there are no imports because domestic production is too much more efficient than importing, so the purple curve is also identical. Consider the supply and demand curves for ice cubes.)

supply and demand curve Purple curve is just the blue curve with the added tariff.

You can mess with the blue curve by adding or removing various costs to the merchant, including opportunity costs (i.e. how much it would be worth to me to take the goods somewhere else where I can get a better price).

You can mess with the green curve by adjusting local production cost factors.

You can mess with the demand curve by changing what kind of good it is and how much people want it.

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  • $\begingroup$ It's much worse than that, because the question is about a bridge toll and not about customs tariffs. A bridge toll functions as an export tax, which is almost always a stupid idea. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 14, 2025 at 7:29
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexP I thought that we were talking about an import tax only because of the mention of imports in paragraph 3... if it's an export tax, same thing applies, but the protected region whose demand constitutes the red curve is the world outside the city, and the green curve is the production of the outside world. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 14, 2025 at 7:36
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They wouldn't if they could get away with it.

You can only charge what the market will bear before other routes will be taken. Cologne had both "Stapelrecht" and the "Rheinzoll" - Goods had to be offered for sale for three days in Cologne, and any transport through Cologne was tariffed. That's what your toll is. A through-tariff. The Rheinzoll was only something like 0.5 to 10 % of the market value, depending on the good and time. And even that led to smuggling and trying to evade the forced offer times. There's even whole dissertations about it.

As one of the most costly examples, the toll for a Fuder (large barrel) of wine in 1317 was 33 Turnos. The barrel would cost 15 Gilder in the Lausitz, which is a little more than 340 Turnos, marking a 9-10% toll. But transport of that on roads was not practicable, so the Rhine it was. Or, maybe fabric? There's books just about the price of fabric! For fabric from Flanders, a toll of 3-5 Pfennig per bundle, each of which is 1/240th Mark Silver. Buying a bundle Fabric in Wismar did cost the equivalent of 771 Pfennig. That's a toll of 0.5 %.

25 %, coupled with the transport costs in medieval times on carts, is equivalent to forcing the price of the good up by a factor of 2 or more to be worth it! Merchants would either actively use other routes unless those were much more expensive, or they'd try to smuggle and circumnavigate the toll. The extra tariff on sinful goods would mean that those products are exclusively smuggled: you'd need to be able to triple the price at the destination just to break even with transport costs!

So, why would they put up with it? It must be the only way that is safe or doable in any reasonable time.

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The elements

  1. The other land routes are dangerous. This one keeps monsters, bandits, etc. at bay. You do not need to hire soldiers to take this bridge. Thus all bridges are costly
  2. If you hired guards, there would also be the danger they would turn on you once you were out of settled lands. The toll-bridge keepers are ruthlessly honest and never charge a penny more than the toll. Therefore, the keepers are reliable. A high but predictable cost is better for planning than unpredictability
  3. YOU are not paying the toll. The final price is your costs including the toll and then your profit. This is feasible because it adds to the conspicuous consumption element. (Consequently these merchants heavily favor, if they do not exclusively import, goods that can't be duplicated in the other country.)
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Perhaps the local duke of that toll-castle has de jure or de facto privilege of not restricting the nomenclature of wares coming through.

Other crossings will not let through goods that strong domestic guilds had lobbied to restrict. Think fine clothing, wines, etc. But not this one. If you are from a wrong religious backgrounds, other crossings will also not let you in and may even hurt you. Not this one as long as your head is paid for.

Also, the restriction of not underpricing you goods is softer than one would think, because all goods are much cheaper in toll-castle area than everywhere else. Pure supply and demand. The duke is also more in the business of taxing than expropriating.

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Compulsory lottery.

At the end of market day when all wares have been sold - one out of every twenty marketers will receive their levy fivefold.

This more than doubles the income of the lucky winners and still reaps a pretty good tax-total for the owners.

Win-win.

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  • $\begingroup$ I fail to see how this would incentivise using the toll $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 18, 2025 at 14:27
  • $\begingroup$ @IMP9024 The toll is paid into the jackpot of the lottery. Have I made that particularly unclear in the way it's written? I suspect so. Other things on my mind that won't go away. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 18, 2025 at 16:32
  • $\begingroup$ It's inconsistent and relies on luck for the payoff, while merchants like consistency. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 19, 2025 at 3:16

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