"Patrick Tilley - Amtrak 3 - Iron Master" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tilley Patrick)

The result is unquestioning obedience and loyalty, first to one's own
domain-lord and through him to the shogun.

Succession is through the male line, and some shogunates hold sway for
several generations before being displaced by a stronger rival. As the
leadership of the First Family is unchallenged and inviolate, the
systematised impermanence requires clarification. For Iron Masters,
the shogun is regarded as 'first among equals'; a domain-lord whose
family has won pre-eminence by the consent of his peers or by force of
arms. As a result, the power of the shogunate ultimately depends on,
and is maintained by, alliances with other domain-lords whose loyalty
is spiced with a large measure of self-interest - a pernicious
by-product of all 'open' systems.

Although ruled by a warrior caste, the Iron Master's principal activity
is internal trade. Mineral resources, agricultural produce and
manufactured items are shipped on a supply-and-demand basis from one
area to another.

All domain-lords are required to make annual support payments (taxes)
to the shogunate. The amount paid by each represents a percentage of
the assets of their domain. Since the valuation is carried out by
government agents, this has, in the past, proved to be a potent source


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of disaffection.

These payments, together with the sale of trading licences and
manufacturing monopolies, provide the revenue needed by the bakufu to
carry out the various functions of government.

All surplus goods are bought and sold via a pre-Holocaust




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medium of exchange known as 'money'. This takes the form of small,
thin, rectangular sheets of compressed wood pulp (dollars) and small
metal discs (yen), each representing a given number of exchange units
(currency) which confers an equivalent purchasing power upon the holder
and gives rise to the curious notion of personal 'wealth' - an outmoded
concept that the Federation has wisely dispensed with.