Now 0% does not seem like a very great percentage, certainly
not for a modern industrialized state. Yet, in late Byzantine
society, where nearly all of the inhabitants ofthe empire lived at or
only marginally above the level of subsistence, 0% of total pro-
duction was a very high percentage of disposable production
(production beyond the minimum nutritional requirements of the
population). While it would be desirable to determine this fraction
ofproduction, further travel along this line is not possible without
appealing to totally imaginary figures.
The last economic topic for consideration is the cost of warfare
in terms of the number of people who, through their labor, were
needed to support a single soldier. For the settled soldier and
professional guard, the answer is simple. To employ the services
of a settled soldier or guard, only the labor resources of the
soldier's household were needed, perhaps 0 or 0 people, including
the soldier, his wife, a few children and perhaps a servant or hired
man. For the pronoiar-soldier, the situation is more interesting.