I'd suggest that the lower limit on the tax rate be 0 (no taxation)...
some people may qualify for local lord but not want to deal with the
hassles of tax collection, revolt suppression, etc.
Also I think that the severity scale should have keywords attached,
sort of like the attitudes do now.... ranging from 'none' to 'nominal'
through 'average' on up to 'exorbitant' and 'rapacious'.
> > I know that taxing economic transactions in a region is difficult to
> > implement, but it's a popular idea. I think it's more interesting
> > than the head tax on the peasants.
>
> I think it's popular and interesting to players like a True Market Economy
> would be: fun to dream about, but it would never really work.
I have to agree that imposing a sales tax would probably more trouble
than it's worth. As others have pointed out, not a whole lot of gold
changes hands at a market regularly. If some sort of sales tax is
desired you can always just make your tax base a little larger if a market
is present in the province. (One market ~ 50 population?)
Incidentally, with all the comments on decreasing population if tax rates
are too high, I'd also suggest that when tax rates are very low, the
population should naturally increase. (So you could cut taxes to get
more money...voodoo economics in action.) To prevent another exponential
spiral, the population could asymptotically reach some upper limit,
reflecting the maximum population the province can feed and support.