Which is VERY medievally correct. Religions should be heavily advantaged (or have the possibility of a heavy advantage) in the financial markets, if we want to be even remotely Medieval.
Amen to this. How do you think the Catholic Church became so wealthy? Religions have been tax exempt throughout western history. If you control a religion to the extent that you feel safe storing your money in it, you deserve it, as you're probably a relatively high ranking member. It's not like religions are easy to create and maintain. And I have yet to hear that someone has created a religion for the sole purpose of storing money, without any effort at developing it or propagating it. Now THAT would be power gaming.
One point that I feel has not been raised yet - what exactly is so bad about people using guilds and religions to evade taxes in the first place? Is there a contention that this somehow hurts the game? If so, I fail to see how. I do not understand why subjecting all money everywhere to taxes is so important. Tax evasion is as old as taxes and a time honored tradition of privileged classes everywhere, not least in medieval Europe.
