What businesses/shops/services do you find in a town with a population of about 1300?

what businesses/shops/services do you find in a town with a population of about 1300?
And how many town guards would it have?

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A couple carpenters, a few fishers, many farmers, probably an inn, etc.

I'd say about 30 dedicated guards that act more like policemen, with most fighting age males being militia that can take up arms in an emergency.

>many farmers
I disagree. farmers live in the countryside and and in small villages. towns are for craftsmen and artisans

One or two full-time guards, typically some veteran mercenaries or (if the town belongs to a noble) knights. The remainder of the town watch is made from able burghers who have the duty to work for the watch for a few weeks each year - mostly guarding the town entrances. For a town this size, you can expect about 8 or so burghers to be on watch duty at any given time. Of course, many people will carry weapons with them so simple crimes would be dealt with by mob justice right there and then.

Numbers and types of businesses depends on three things:
Firstly, why is the town there?
Eg. If it's on a junction of trade routes, or a river crossing point, then it'll have more inns for travellers, a wagon/wheel wrights for replacements and repairs, posdibly a more specialised smithy as well as the usual general blacksmith.
If it's a port, it'll have a lumberyard and boatwrights, if not having an actual shipyard.
Secondly, what size is the hinterland that it acts as a service centre for, and what particular needs does that area have?
If it is surrounded by farms it may well have warehousing to store produce before it gets shipped elsewhere, a coopers to produce barrels for the stuff to be stored in, etc.
Thirdly, cultural quirks, odd-ball tastes of the founder/current lord, and "just because".
An example of this would be a bowyer/fletcher in a setting where weekly archery practice is mandatory for all adult males.
The guard/militia numbers would depend on known threats, cultural preferences, and how keen the local lord is on there being a standing force that might not be under their control...

...

>30 cops on 1300 population
For some reason this sounds like a lot.

here you go, thank me later

What era? Are we talking medieval?
If that's the case then
>The town is either new and growing under the protection of the king, or old and dieing under the wrath of the king.
>Being as small as it is blacksmiths still hold a lot of power in the city, and they will have 2-5 of them depending on local industry.
>Blacksmiths do not have as much power as they do in the countryside however.
>The city can support a number of trade guilds depending on the surrounding region and trade routes.
>There will be male and female guilds, and very rarely mix gender guilds.
>Most tradesmen in the city will have an apprentice or journeymen training under them as free labour.
>The city will have one large Inn, or a handful of small ones.
>Said inns are probably owned by retired prostitutes and will double as brothels.
>If the town has the king's favor, or the popes eye, they may be lucky enough to have a bishop, otherwise they will have a preist.
>If the town has a bishop then the center of town will be a massive cathedral under construction. If a preist a normal church that's just undergoing an expansion.
>Religion will be the centerpiece of life in the town with most people attending 6+ days a week.
>Church services are not just a time for prayer, and guildmen negotiate and fraternise during.
>the city might have a small retinue of gaurds, but most of the inhabitants will themselves be armed and quick to defend their town.
>The town is likely run by a mayor, who is likely elected yearly by the guilds, and is a member of one of them.
>If the town has lost its independence however, the mayor might be heritable position occupied by a powerful noble family.
>The town will have a market, but the number of market days and fair days will be determined by the king.
>If they have the king's favor they might be lucky enough to hold markets daily and fairs bi-monthly or monthly.
>If they have his wrath they'll hold market maybe once a month, and fairs never.

Oh an no farmers if the town is independent, all the produce is brought in by fudal serfs on market and fair days.

>What era?
1600's

This is great stuff user.

Do you think this kind of village setup would survive in 'medieval fantasy not-Europe'? I'm guessing the more common magic & monsters are, the more militarised (and probably autocratic) things will get. Medieval Russia vs Medieval Britain, maybe

The more common magic is, the fewer people are needed to actual do stuff (due to creating food and water out of no-where, magical automation and magical trinkets and tools), so the more people are available for dangerous tasks, like subjugating the neighbouring population with military force.

I've always thought societies where 'player class levels' are common would be less like medieval Europe and more like the least stable parts of the mesopotamian bronze age
Although would slavery even work when every thousandth random slave is born a sorcerer?

>>If they have the king's favor they might be lucky enough to hold markets daily and fairs bi-monthly or monthly.
is there any good reason to not let someone hold market?
Seems to me like it is good for the economy

Heres's a decent breakdown of a typical medieval village/fief.

ludusludorum.com/2014/10/28/get-medieval-the-village-in-the-middle-ages/

Ok say you are the king
You own land, lots of it, but not all of it. Another man in your country, owns almost as much land as you, and has started entertaining treasonous ideas in the lesser nobility. If you try and seize his land, the nobles will revolt and you'll have a war on your hands.
A lot of your rivals power comes from the value of his land opposed to yours, and the taxes he can skim from the trade and sale of those goods in towns.
So being king you devise a plan, and set up new towns right on the border of your rivals land, near the major trade highways. Then you decree that his towns can only hold market every other week, all to support the growth of your new towns, for the good of the country of course.
He has to travel longer to get his goods to markets which lowers his profit, and he can't skim as much money on those city's as he used to which hurts his profit even more. Meanwhile as the king and guy who's land the city's are on, you're making buckets of cash, and doing peachy. Depending on where you put the new towns you might even just steal them from the noble rival as all the people in one town up and move to yours.
With his economic power weakened and by spreading the wealth from these new towns around to the other nobles, you as king have stoped and upstart rival, avoided a civil war, and gotten a nice meaty chunk of profits for yourself.

TL;DR medieval economic warfare is as convoluted as their court system.

>30 cops on 1300 population
>For some reason this sounds like a lot.
I work in a town of 1,500 and we have two cops that we rent from the county, and they aren't even giving us 24-hour coverage.

Ok a few modifications then.
>No more bartering, it's a 100% money economy now.
>Church is still the center of social life's but not as important for economic life's.
>If the city doesn't have a bank there will be one in easy traveling distance.
>Your city small as it is will have a professional garason or reliable mercinary company.
>Guilds are stronger than ever but nobles have started infiltrateing their ranks.
>Congratulations your kinda a middle class is now a slightly bigger actual middle class.
>Your city is probably more ethnically diverse than it used to be.
>Ethnic violence has incidently gone up.
>monasterys are no longer vital for the city, but will still be important.
>Universitys are (more of) a thing now, and take over some of the monasterys duty's.
>Independent farmers are possible but not common.
>The king can't fuck you with trade days anymore, well, not unless he wants a war.

I'd say city's remain mostly unchanged, maybe there are more or less merchant adventure guilds, and long distant trade will be radically effected.
As for how fiefs and fudalism change? Fuck man that's really hard to tell. Fudalism worked because power easily coralated with land. And when it no longer did the system started to fall apart. With magic being a thing it could really fuck things up.

Remember, this is fudal times, most farms don't grow one crop they grow a lot of different crops as you need to barter what you make, and you'll mostly eat what you grow even for the nobles.
30 is quite excessive though, maybe 15-20 instead. Also, no cash crops till the late medieval period, and no perishable cashcrops till the freezer is invented.

> no perishable cashcrops until the freezer is invented
Firstly, suggest you look up "ice merchants".
Secondly, drying, pickling, salting and several other methods of food preservation all pre-date the growth of urban environments.

That's modern times. A ratio of 1 guard to 50 citizens is roughly alright.

The modern day ration is pretty crazy. In Australia it is 1 police officer per 50 000 people. Same ratio as soldiers.
Granted it depends on the country but in modern times it works differently and all the police can respond to certain situations whereas in medieval times they need the people to defend the town there and then. No radioing for back up

Hmm fair enough user, but perishable cash crops as we'd think of them take till the freezer.
Also
>1800's trade
>In a medieval thread
Come on man

lot of farmers that own land just outside of town would be living inside the town.

> 18th century trade...
user, how do you think the ancients chilled their sorbets (sherberts in some translations)?
The wealthy and powerful could have ice brought from up in the mountains, which could then be kept in the appropriate conditions.

Or make a cold cellar by putting said ice in it.

the ice cream was invented in the 1600's. that's pretty cool.

Ice merchants refer to the specific ice trade, not the use of ice boxes/cellars.
Sure you could conduct short range ice selling and that did happen, but there is no evedence for long distance transfer of perishable cash crops using them in the medieval period.
And ice isn't a crop.
I think.

Thanks user, really useful

> Glaciers grow seasonally, have ice harvested from them...
Could be you're right!