Trade old
The following is the article that describes the old bssic trading concepts, it does not describe the caravan system employed by lords which is still current on stable islands. The caravan system is itself obsolete on the testing islands. Details of new system can be seen in Trade.
Trade is the business of buying and selling commodities. In the case of Battlemaster, those commodities are food and wood, and sometimes assorted odds-and-ends type luxury goods.
Why Trade?
To a noble, it's hard to understand the necessity of trade. After all, all nobles receive tax gold just by being members of the aristocratic ruling class, and merchants seem to be in it just to make gold. Why bother? Well, the fact is trade is not always about making profits in gold, and for a realm that doesn't produce enough food to keep all of its population from starving, trade is essential. In such realms, traders might not make any profits at all, instead performing a valuable service to the state.
A region that receives gold from a trader, however, sees that same gold go into its coffers and ultimately, into taxes and distributed among all the nobles of the realm. So trade can make a realm wealthy.
Why Not Trade?
Trading itself is tedious and not very exciting. It usually requires monotonous record-keeping of items bought and sold, prices, supply and demand and other esoteric pieces of data.
And since foreign traders can supply a realm in need with food, and region lords and Bankers can send oxcarts to ship food within the realm, it is possible for a realm to need not ever field a single trader of its own.
As well, trading unwisely can deplete the gold and food of your realm. Worse, exporting food - even to an allied realm - may wind up ultimately seeing that same food be sold to your realm's enemies. Trade is a double-edged sword. Even peaceful realms can throw you in prison if they suspect a trader of illicit deals, and because of traders being harmless they can often be targeted for attacks under false suspicion.
The Basics of Trade
Most trade is concerned with food. Although wood is at this time another commodity, it is only needed by region lords to construct Buildings and to repair Fortifications, and there are rarely any crises where wood is needed but unavailable. On the other hand, regions without enough food face starvation and revolt, making food by far the more important good.
However the following terms do apply to wood, and in fact anything that could conceivably be bought or sold.
Supply and Demand
Food is produced primarily in rural, agrarian regions. In economic terms this means rural regions tend to have a good supply of food. Similarly, food is consumed primarily by the larger populated areas like cities, so cities have what is called a higher demand for food. Ideally, this means that food is purchased in those rural regions and sold to the city regions.
Prices
The Banker of a realm set the prices for both selling food and buying it. To encourage traders to sell their food to a large city, the banker or duke will likely set the buying price in a city to a higher value than elsewhere. Similarly, a food-producing region will have excess food, and can thus afford to sell it, and often at lower prices. Thus, price is connected with supply and demand.
A trader seeks to make a profit by buying at a lower price than he later sells.
Imports and Exports
To import food means to buy it from somewhere else, to export it means to sell food to somewhere else. A trader is the middle-man between importing and exporting regions or realms: his job is one of transport.
Production and Consumption
Each realm and region produces a certain amount of food every day. This is basically synonymous with supply. Likewise, all regions and realms consume an amount of food (unless they have zero population!) each day, and this is the same as demand.
Put another way, a region that produces more food than it consumes can be characterized as a supply region (and can export what it doesn't consume), whereas one that consumes more food than it produces is a demand region (and will need to import what it doesn't produce).
Markets
The growth of markets historically lead to an increase in wealth, and it's not hard to see why.
In Battlemaster, a Marketplace is a building that allows traders to do deals directly with other traders. Thus a Marketplace acts as an intermediary between regions that trade food.
This means that instead of traveling directly to a food-producing region, a trader can visit the closest Marketplace instead. Similarly, a trader in a food-rich realm can sell his food at a Marketplace instead of travelling all the way to the region which, ultimately, is in need of that food. This saves time for the traders, allowing them to make more trips and/or do other things besides traveling. It's also possible for a trader to buy and sell only at Marketplaces, never actually doing business with a food-producing or food-demanding region at all.
This also tends to bypass the region lord. When you buy from a region, part of that gold goes directly to that region's tax. But when you buy from a Marketplace, the gold goes entirely into the hands of whichever trader sold the food.
A bonus for the trader is that trader can simply offload his food, and set the price he wants, and leave. The food will remain there until another trader comes along, sees the price and buys it. A very long time might pass in between, but it does mean that a trader doesn't have to depend solely on the whims of regional lords and bankers to establish a selling/buying price.
Hence, this is all known as a Trader-to-Trader Market.
Trading Bankers
Bankers have the ultimate advantages when it comes to being a trader. Not only do they control the prices in their own realm, they have access to detailed economic data that lets them play the market for their own gains. See the Guide to Embezzlement and Money Laundering for more info.
Trade is the business of buying and selling commodities. In the case of Battlemaster, the only tradable commodity is food, although wood will likely be the next commodity.
Region Lords and Stewards
A region lord travels to either his region or a marketplace and creates or fulfils an offer. Region lords of net food producers (rural regions) will typically create sell offers, while region lords of net food consumers (cities) will typically create buy offers. Several region types are often close to a break-even, and may not create offers of either type, or may do so only rarely. Naturally a lord can create or fulfil either kind for opportunistic trades if they come across any.
It is possible to restrict the sale of food to your realm only, or only allied realms. Realms at war are not allowed to trade at all.
It is also possible to use only one type of offer in a realm--either the city lords create buy offers, and region lords fulfil them, or the rural lords create sell offers, and the city lords agree to them.
Region lords can only trade within a limited distance of themselves, though they can always access their own granaries. This means, however, that they can travel across the island and conduct a trade that sells or buys food from their region, as long as they can find a marketplace.
Stewards operate in the same way as region lords.
Traders
Traders must be at a marketplace to do business, unless they are region lords or stewards, in which case they can also do business in their own region. Traders have a much larger trading range than non-traders, over 500 miles in many cases.
Traders are the only class capable of brokering trades. To broker a trade, they must match up one or more buy offers with one or more sell offers in such a way that the quantity of food matches. In order to complete the trade, the trader must make a profit. Note that traders who are not also lords or stewards can only broker trades. They cannot just buy or sell anything.
Production and Consumption
Each realm and region produces a certain amount of food every day. This is basically synonymous with supply. Likewise, all regions and realms consume an amount of food (unless they have zero population!) each day, and this is the same as demand.
Put another way, a region that produces more food than it consumes can be characterized as a supply region (and can export what it doesn't consume), whereas one that consumes more food than it produces is a demand region (and will need to import what it doesn't produce).