[Mkguild] Metamor Population, Arable Land, and Valley Size

[Michael Bard]

> There are a couple of errors with your math.  For instance, the food
> consumption ratio is not consistent with 30 men per acre of arable
> land.  ARs consume less food, and many AMs would consume different
> food altogether.
>
> Secondly, Metamor controls lands south of the Valley mouth which are
> also arable.  The Valley itself does not need to be self-sustaining
> via these numbers.
>
> Now, Lorland, a region south of Metamor which is particularly
> fertile, does lend a lot of support food-wise to Metamor; they are
> the breadbasket of the valley.  But they support mainly regions north
> of themselves.  My understanding is that most people living in the
> valley live in the Southern half which is safer, and which has more
> arable land, and which is closer to the valley mouth where there is a
> LOT more arable land.
>
> So, the valley does not need to be nearly the length you describe to
> attain those population levels.

Those numbers are derived from average medieval populatoin densities, so
they are somewhat rough and flexible.  Extremely fertile land would have a
higher average ratio.  Medieval France had a 14th-century density upwards of
100 people/sq. mile. The French were blessed with an abundance of arable
countryside, waiting to be farmed. Modern France has more than twice this
many people. Germany, with a slightly less perfect climate and a lower
percentage of arable land, averaged more like 90 people/sq. mile. Italy was
similar (lots of hills and rocky areas). The British Isles were the least
populous, with a little more than 40 people per square mile, most of them
clustered in the southern half of the isles.

I took 30 as the low end, assuming a crappy northern climate (short growing
season), fertile but very HARD soil (one of the big reasons for the
industrial revolution, in my mind, was the requirement in Northern Europe
for actual plows to break up the soil -- see
http://transform.to/~mwbard/essays/whydidtheclassicalworldneverdevelopmachines.html ), and a lot of relatively unusual rocky ground.  If it is a more
fertile river valley, which may be possible depending on how deep, how wide,
how slow/fast, the brand new river is, ( :) ), then the AVERAGE densities
can go MUCH higher.  If you go for 60, then the valley only needs to be 25
miles long south of the Keep.

Michael Bard