Lady Roslin was writing him a bad check, and he was writing bad checks to the soldiers. That was perfectly reasonable.
Suleiman intended to offer them reforms that would neither depart from Westeros's current reality nor be too radical, yet would greatly stir the farmers' enthusiasm and fighting strength.
In Westeros, there were only serfs. They leased their lords' land, paid heavy taxes, and obeyed military conscription. There were no Free Folk; only the Wildlings called themselves Free Folk.
They had no enthusiasm or fighting strength when it came to war. The only force the lords could truly rely on was the knightly class, which had been removed from production.
Suleiman intended to establish a stable tax system, anchored to land area, abolishing the poll tax and the various complicated levies that Westeros imposed upon its serfs.
For now, the rudimentary system would temporarily have three ranks.
Serfs: all adult men within the domain had to establish separate households and leave their original families. The lord would assign them public land to cultivate, doing his best to ensure that every tiller had land. For every mu of public land, five-tenths of the harvest would be collected as tax. The land could not be inherited and would be reclaimed upon a change of generation.
Suleiman had considered that five-tenths might seem heavy, but in Westeros, seven-tenths was common, and that was before all the other harsh and miscellaneous levies. They even taxed travelers and marriages. So his five-tenths was not actually difficult to bear, and it could also encourage farmers to take to the battlefield.
Cultivators: serfs who earned military merit by serving their lord on the battlefield could become cultivators. They would receive "private land," recognized in Westeros only by Suleiman—and by Suleiman alone. For every mu of private land,