Look at my horse, my horse is amazing

That's how subsistence farmers were dragged into the market economy. Colonists liked doing that.

But this was also done in the past for military campaigns. Provisioning an army is hard work. It's easier if soldiers can buy stuff with gold along the way and the king demanding the gold back from the population. It's the more realistic way currency use formed instead of the "suppose we want to barter" story. Villagers not going along with the program got torched.

Trogdor didn't even collect taxes. He terrorized the peasants just for the love of the game.

Trogdor was a man

Just be like that one ruler who just requested one bird from each house, alive, only to tie some sort of flammable sack tied to their legs and set it on fire before letting them free.

I wanna say it was a Bulgarian ruler. Gonna have to fact check this, so BRB!

Edit:

Looks like it was Olga of Kiev, so I got no idea what modern country claims her.

From what I was reading, it was her ending a battle against a tribe that killed her husband and Grand Prince of Kiev.

She wanted 3 pidgeons and sparrows for each house in one city of the people they were fighting as a tribute. She had her soldiers attach cloth bound sulphur to each bird and then that night lit them on fire and set them free, as to burn the city down.

That was after she had some messengers buried alive, burnt to death in a bath house, and had them so drunk on their own mead before ordering their death.

The system is down.

that is why the British moved to bricks. Wait that was something else sorry