I
Your task, crudely put, is to devise an ideal “state space”: that is to say,
an ideal space of appropriation. Insofar as the state depends on taxes or rents
in the largest possible sense of the term (foodstuffs, corvée labor, soldiers,
tribute, tradable goods, specie), the question becomes: what arrangements
are most likely to guarantee the ruler a substantial and reliable surplus of
manpower and grain at least cost?