In the year 531 and later:
What would happen if a player started asking toll to all passing travelers/merchant on the road his manor is located?

Sure, you got angry lord, but what if you give him large part of profit? Who cares what citydwellers think...
Or you only ask toll from non-locals or for example on the road between two cities not of your lord: UpAvon and Levcomagus (two cities not owned by Earl of Salisbury in 531)

It sounds like a robber-baron tactic, but what stops a noble greedy knight from doing the same and bribing his lord?

fg,
Thijs

I wouldn't be surprised if the annual income of an estate already includes some tolls. It did in previous editions of the rules, where income sources were more explicitly stated.

The income you'd be able to get from a toll would be a tiny fraction of your manours income, unless you were situated on an important road - and the right to charge and collect a toll is held by the earl who appoints it to who he pleases. Again, it's probably part of the income of one or two rich estates along those roads.

Collecting a toll and appeasing the lord by giving him part of the profit is not going to work. The right to collect tols is his, and the money you are keeping is therefore stolen from him.

I'm sure knights in outlying areas charge tolls and no-one notices or are too unimportant to be able complain to anyone important. But again, they wont get much of an income, and soon people will choose other routes. Those routes that are capable of supporting tolls will already have tolls on them. If you start charging a toll at point a, when another Earl-appointed tollkeeper is at point B, soon people will be complaining about paying too many tolls and stop travelling those routes. meaning you have just cost the Earl income from toll B...

It is a robber baron tactic, as you say, and a knight can't bribe a lord to get away with this- he is stealing from the lord himself. Put yourself in the lord's place: Just imagine everyone did it - tolls would spring up everywhere, and trade would wuffer; and unlike lesser knights, the earl gets a lot of his income from that trade. He will stamp it out.

Robber barons do it because they answer to no-one, and they are called robbers in part because of the practice.

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Now, if a new trade route springs up, then the earl will have an opportunity to appoint a new tollkeper along that route. That's an opportunity for reward, or for robber barons to take up residence and have to be driven out.

It would sort of depend on what tpye of road it is.

If I remember correctly, anyone can charge a toll if they are maintaining a royal road. The idea is that they are doing a type of service to the crown by keeping the roads up. I suppose someone could just charge a toll and do no maintenance, but them the road would deteriorate, travel would drop off, and so would the profits. Worse still, if someone from the King came through, like say an army going off to war, and they were hampered by the poor state of the road, even though someone set up a tool to prevent this sort of thing, it could lead to repercussions.

Doing this in the Romance era is a good way to get bored knights coming to kick your tail for the Glory. As said, it's a robber-baron tactic, and Arthur doesn't like robber barons.

-If- nobody else controls the area, then you can set up a toll, but if nobody else holds the area, it's a backwoods area that doesn't get much trade or travel anyway.

Re: royal roads, usually someone else is already collecting that toll. If you set up another toll station there, you're going to be messing with someone else's profits, and that will lead to conflict. And do you really want to start a fight that might hamper travel down a royal road? That could well get a Knight of the Round involved, and I guarantee that he won't be taking the side of a new robber baron who's picking a fight and messing with the program...unless the old robber baron was tolling excessively or not maintaining the road, of course.

It would sort of depend on what tpye of road it is.

If I remember correctly, anyone can charge a toll if they are maintaining a royal road.



Absolutely not.
One major point of a Royal Road is that ONLY the king charges for it.



The idea is that they are doing a type of service to the crown by keeping the roads up.


Bridge maintainence (at his own expense) is a normal part of the responsibilities of a baron.



I suppose someone could just charge a toll and do no maintenance, but them the road would deteriorate, travel would drop off, and so would the profits.


This is the fate of all roads, and even to Roman roads, in territory under constant war. Also, during the anarchy stage.



Worse still, if someone from the King came through, like say an army going off to war, and they were hampered by the poor state of the road, even though someone set up a tool to prevent this sort of thing, it could lead to repercussions.


If your obligation was to keep the road clear, and it was not, then yes, you would be in trouble with the king.

--Greg

It would sort of depend on what tpye of road it is.

If I remember correctly, anyone can charge a toll if they are maintaining a royal road.



Absolutely not.
One major point of a Royal Road is that ONLY the king charges for it.

I'm going to have to search through my references. I recall some sort of law where anyone (anyone probably meaning any knight) could maintain the king's road and charge a toll for it. It was supposedly one reason why the royal roads were in a better state of repair. ???

Now I'll have to see where I got that from... :o