Re: carls

Donald

>Well both KoS and TR mention half-carls and cottars who I'd also
>regard as farmers. We could be disagreeing on the meaning of the
>word "farmer".

These are all farmers, but I wonder if I'm including half-carls as carls and you're not.

>You think that someone can get the status of carl by borrowing
>enough cattle to support an ox team?

Sure.

>cattle loans will be much
>more to do with allocation of labour between bloodlines. If a
>bloodline has more cattle than they can manage they will lend
>some to another.

It's been a while since I read Nerys Patterson, Cattle Lords and Clansmen, but I think it's more political/social than economic. When you make a cattle loan, the borrower is beholden to you. But people seemed to think it was worth taking out a cattle loan. Maybe it's the bread/cabbage thing, but there's probably more.

-- 

David Dunham
Glorantha/HQ/RQ page: http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html