I realize my question is very broad, and not very sexy, but I'm looking for general information about this process. I'd be interested in any given empire's method. I'm interested in the details of how things were run because I believe it can shed light on larger events. Information from anywhere in the world prior to the Industrial Revolution will do. Hopefully, that isn't too vague under the sub's rules.

Below is a full list of my questions. If you can shed light on some but not all, that's plenty. I realize not all of them may be answered today.

1. How were taxes assessed on a large scale?
2. How did governments find out how much product was produced, particularly in the case of small, distant villages?
3. How were taxes transported, particularly when goods were taken instead of coin? Did tax collectors travel in large caravan trains with a heavy guard?
4. How did people dodge taxes? What were the risks?

The poem Vikingen from Erik Gustaf Geijer is an example of where this practice is mentioned.

If not particularly true, why and where did these phrases come about?

I've been doing some reading about 16th and 17th century Jesuits in pretty much two separate areas of study, Jesuit life and scholarship in Western Europe, and Jesuit missions in Asia. A couple of my sources in the former set of readings mention Jesuits who were themselves from Japan, and the latter sometimes mention Japanese Christians who became priests prior to the expulsion of Catholics from Japan. (Mario Scaduto's Catalogo dei Gesuiti d'ltalia, 1540-1565 lists Jesuits with their country of origin as Japan alongside Jesuits from other European nations, for instance.) I'd really like to know more about these guys. Were their career opportunities and geographical spread any different from Jesuits of European descent? Were there still opportunities for Japanese Christians to become Jesuits later than 1565, and when was the cutoff point where Japan's national policies or other factors made this no longer feasible? Basically, sources like Wikipedia can state with reasonable confidence from the historical record that the last (European) Jesuit in Japan "was either killed or reconverted by 1644" -- what about the last Japanese Jesuits abroad?

Of course the concept of nationality has evolved over time, but it seems strange that no one questions the fact that someone obviously English has the very German name of Ulrich von Liechtenstein and claims to be from Gelderland. Granted, Hollywood tends to play fast and loose with not specifying what language characters are actually meant to be speaking in, but there's no indication of the main characters trying to pretend to be anything but English. Would it have been perfectly normal for someone from one country to have a completely foreign name, along the 14th-century jousting circuit?

Note: I don't mean any criticism of A Knight's Tale, which is of course the second-greatest sports movie ever made, after Major League.

We see a number of officers in training (that's what I assume they are anyway, but I would appreciate clarification on that too!) who seem to range in age from 10 to 18. Were boys really joining the Royal Navy at those young ages? How did one go about becoming an officer at that time?

I love historical fiction, but primarily read Tudor works. I'm looking to branch out into other areas of history that I enjoy.

Can anyone here recommend good historical fiction on the above or just authors in general and I can check out their work myself? Thank you!

I did google, but it's like needle in a haystack, so many indie authors writing "historically", but forgetting the history haha

Most historical evidence during the 400s to about the 1600s doesn't seem well documented nor reliable.

So why can we pinpoint the year of the Norman Invasion?

I have read about the beginnings of modern "total war" in which civilians and civilian infrastructure are regarded as legitimate targets. There was Sherman's March to the Sea, British policy in the Boer Wars, unrestricted U-boat attacks, etc. all culminating in the Second World War.

The suggestion seems to be that, before this modern development, warfare was somehow more civilized. But this does not fit with what I know of medieval warfare, which appears to be full of massacres, bloody sieges and razing.

Is "total war" really a modern invention?

Did Bengalis, Tamils and Gujeratis see themselves as something different from European traders? Or, to a Gujerati, was a Bengali as foreign as the British or Portugese?

During the days of the Roman Empire, many Christians practiced in secret despite the threat of death for doing so, and that included Britain. When Constantine converted to Christianity and legalized it throughout the Roman Empire, many people in Britain converted to Christianity.

However, after Hengist and Horsa arrived and conquered, England was ruled by pagans in the various kingdoms established. A century-ish later, roughly in 600, a Kentish monarch (I forget which one off the top of my head) married a Christian princess and allowed her to bring over some missionaries to convert the people, and himself. That eventually led to more missionaries going throughout England to convert the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

However, was there already a Christian presence within England by the time the missionaries arrived? If the Romans had changed the religion of the native Britons to Christianity prior to leaving, and Christians are historically good at hiding their Christianity, would it not stand to reason that there would have already been a Christian presence within England? The particular king that I referenced had married his Christian wife prior to converting as well, so evidently pagans don't seem to hate Christians as much as Christians hate pagans.

If people (monks) spent all their time writing and drawing funny pictures in the margins, why are they not that great at drawing?

Many such communities of Christians exist in the state of Kerala and claim to be the descendants of those converts. Is their historical validity to these claims.

What materials were supplied and how much did they help the red army?

How did linguistic identities like Tamils, Malayalis, Kannadigas, Bengalis, Gujaratis, Punjabis etc develop.Were these shaped by colonisation or did they exist before?