Greystoke Family/Edmund/The Art of Trading
Contents
The Art of Trading
It turns out there must be an art to being a trader that I haven't discovered, or the class needs serious work. Maybe I haven't learned all the tricks yet. I will impart what I have learned so far....
As a trader, you must consider several things --
- Troops and Paraphernalia
- Gold and Commodities
- Trading Information
- Politics
Troops and Paraphernalia
Previously being a troop leader, a new traders first thoughts may be about a unit. At first you might assume that a trader should travel alone. You would think this would arouse the least amount of suspicion when travelling in foreign realms. The manual states that when you buy caravans, they come with the men needed to work them, so perhaps a trader needs no unit.
In actuality, a trader with no unit might appear as an infiltrator to people reading Scout Reports. A truly discerning eye will see the difference in a Scout Report between an infiltrator and a troop leader without troops. But its best to play it safe. It is best to retain about 7 Infantry or Mixed Infantry as "guards". These guards will also help protect the trader from enemy infiltrators.
Troops owned by a trader are automatically designated s mercenaries. Setting them to anything other than defensive or evasive runs the risk of involvement with any foreign troops, including allies. Keep them set as defensive or evasive to avoid contact with other troops. I don't know what effect their deployment or formation has on them.
A trader does not need siege engines or carts. A banner may or may not help his guards in battle. A healer may be useful. Scouts are definitely useful, as they can produce Scout Reports, but with trading information instead of troop listings. A trader definitely needs caravans. Non-traders can buy two caravans, but traders can buy more. Each caravan holds 100 bushels of food.
Gold and Commodities
A trader is different than a teamster, in that the trader buys the goods and sells them after transportation. A teamster is merely paid for the transportation. The game doesn't support teamsters, only traders. That means we must first buy the goods we want to sell. You will still collect taxes. In some realms you will collect less taxes than a Troop Leader because you don't have the men to support.
When it comes time to buy the goods, if you don't have enough gold, you can borrow from a bank. Ethiala in the Far East also has two trading guilds which I joined. They will each allow me to borrow from them.
It seems at first as if the world supports two commodities - food and wood. In practice, however, it appears as if wood is so plentiful and consumed so little as to make it nearly useless as a trading commodity. That leaves food. Perhaps I am wrong to do so, but I concentrate entirely on food as a commodity.
Trading Information
As a trader, the idea is to buy low and sell high. I understand that the best way to do this is to buy in one realm and sell in another. I believe this is because a realms banker can readjust food as needed between regions within a realm, thus reducing the need for a trader.
So, to buy low and sell high, the most important tool for a trader is information concerning food sellers and food buyers. The tools for finding this information are:
- Actions -> Chat with merchants
- Actions -> Trading
- Actions -> Visit the black market
- Orders -> Send out Scouts
- Information -> Trade Information
Chat with Merchants
Chatting with local merchants will produce results such as those provided in the example below:
Chatting forever with the local merchants in Talex, here is what you learn about some interesting deals:
Region Food Wood
avail Sell Buy notes avail Sell Buy
Talex 0 - 12 1170 - 3
Erahol 0 100
Isular 0 25 5 shortage 500 10 5
Lenamaziel 0 460
Anrimap 0 22 3 150 25 -
Upasael 0 25 5 0 10 5
Remton 0 - 25 1150 40 10
Tunozo 0 15 5 100 10 -
Pesol 40 - 12 420 - 3
The harvest will be in 2 days.
The example provided has several points of interest. The purpose of the "chat" (as can be seen from the example) is to provide the trader with rumors of the selling and buying prices in a random selection of regions. It will also provide the availability of the resource.
First, to buy some food you need a food source. If you were armed with only the report provided as an example, you would see that only Pesol has any food available. Unfortunately, (as can also be seen) the dash means they are not selling any. This fact seems to be extremely common in the game. No food sources!
Next, who could you sell food to? In the example shown above, only Remton will pay higher than any of the other regions selling prices. This is also an extremely common situation in the game. No regions will pay enough to make it worth your while to transport the food. The prices in the report above are for 100 bushels (or one caravan full) of food. So a 1 gold difference would make 1 gold per caravan! Yet all I've found is regions where the buying price is much lower than the selling price!
Beware, the conditions found in this report are very short-lived. In most cases the deal viewed in the report is gone by the time you get to the region!
Your Caravans You own 2 caravans, currently loaded with 10 bushels of food. (free capacity: 190 units)
Trading
The Ornaz Warehouses Good Stored Reserve buying for selling for buy... sell... Food 63 250 (not trading) (not trading) (N/A) (N/A) Wood 109 (not trading) (not trading) (N/A) (N/A) All prices are per 100 units. Remember that the prices are from the regions perspective, e.g. what they are selling you food for when you buy some. Also note that prices are always rounded in the warehouse's favour.
Scouting
Sending out scouts will produce the normal scouting report. However, if you are a trader there will be an extra section of the report similar to that shown below:
Trade Postings Good ca. stored Buying for Selling for Food 300 units 12 gold (not trading)
The report shows trading information for the region you are scouting. In this example, the region being scouted is not selling any food, but is buying food for 12 gold per 100 bushels.
Trade Information
Using the Information->Trade Information function produces a report similar to that shown below:
Food and Harvest Information:
* It is Summer. The weather (harvest in 7 days):
East Coast: Average
Trade Postings in Larmebsi
Good ca. stored Buying for Selling for
Food 250 units 12 gold (not trading)
Wood 300 units 3 gold (not trading)
Of course, the info shown will be for the region you are currently in. The information provided in this example indicates that Larmebsi has 250 food units (bushels), but is not interested in selling any. If you have food, they will pay 12 gold for each 100 bushel that you have.
Politics
To further complicate matters, if you do find a seller or buyer, there is a good chance they will be in an enemy realm. Now that politics are involved in your trading you will probably need permissions from the governments of both realms to travel between them. Your own government might not want you helping an enemy, even if you are making a profit on the transfer.
