Board Thread:Custom Lore Development/@comment-26535281-20170925000359

Publicans are a form of public contractors, tax collectors, and censors all in one as well as 'private business men'. They operate for, and with the blessing of, the State. They operate by the use of 'Contracts' given to the soon to be Publicans by the highest bidder between other candidates (generally chosen from the middle class)

Publicans operate in three main fields and each having it's own contract:

- Some Publicans deal with Taxes and their collection with each city, world, port, and even sectors having their own Tributum (as they are known) they are expected to collect the required taxes plus some (to pay themselves) if they should even miss a few coins or happen to 'lose' some coin they are expected to pay the deficit. Such taxes include: Tariffs, tolls, levies, and many other forms with the Standard Imperial tax, local, and their own 'addition'

- Some Publicans deal with the supplying of imperial installations, facilities, ships, and even the militum itself. They tend to take the form of port mongers or arms dealers who are given a 'allowance' by the state to buy, acquire, or hire others to steal said material. Any surplus they find is theirs by right thus many have thriving business on the side with the extra toys they have picked up along the way. They can also oversee the materials and acquire said materials for the Empire's many building projects.

- Some Publicans deal with supplying and transporting the massive amount of sentient cargo the Empire needs to survive being pretty much professional traffickers for the state. They either facilitate, process, or transport both the laborers, prisoners, and slaves as well as the massive ships and ports needed to drag these poor souls across the Empire.

Most Publicans are rather corrupt and generally, although serving the state, server their own interests and make small fortunes doing so (if their smart about it). Generally the state just shrugs and ignores this corruption as they at least get the job done.

As stated before Publicans get their contracts by the highest bidder with many different levels of contracts being available for example the price of a contract in a small colonial city is far less then that of a city upon one of the core worlds.

Overseeing all of the Publicans is the 'Imperial Board of Labor' a smaller branch of the Administratum who makes it it's duty to both sell out these contracts, make sure they are obeyed, and to expunge any Publicans that fail to do their set quota or are a tad bit too corrupt. 