The Rug Merchant: Arnedeo Simonetti

There is a class in D&D that your players aren't necessarily interested in playing, but they are a big piece of what makes our worlds work. The Merchant class! This stuff doesn't sound like it effects the players, but it does. It effects them a great deal. It is they who the roads were built for, and it is they that allow civilizations to become empires. Only by working together as a whole is civilization possible.





I have already written an article about basic trade and gave a brief outline of how it functions on a local and national level. What it does is it helps you develop color, and purpose to your NPCs which in turn makes them easier to run. It is a little game that you get to play all by yourself during prep.





It will tell you what kinds of things will be in the stores, give you a quick NPC template so you can keep things both fast and consistent when inventing on the fly, and make the world seem viable.





Naturally, in D&D, we aren't playing a real Medieval world, but a glamorized and modern take on what we wish that the world was like. We needn't be overly focused on Social Studies, but if we add just a few basics to our games it adds a psychological element which helps everyone at the table suspend their disbelief, not to mention that it does give us some solid adventure hooks to work with.





In brief, locals trade with locals so that everyone can live better. Small populations supply large populations with raw materials needed for finished goods, these finished goods move out and other finished goods from other communities move in, which improves the quality of life for everyone.





There are limitations. A region can grow the best peaches in the realm, but fruit is a difficult product to move because it rots, this restricts how far away the peaches can be moved. The farmer loads up the peaches and sells them in town, that is now the problem of somebody else. Technology dictates how far away the product can get, rivers can move product faster than roads, but these peaches are good sellers!





The town takes a good load of peaches into a city, and sells them to a merchant who has developed a new technology; he can turn those peaches into brandy which is no longer a perishable item, in fact, this brandy is highly prized and everybody wants some, which draws attention to the regions peaches. The royals who live far away will pay a lot of gold to have special orders of peaches quickly carried to them, and will do whatever it takes to keep this supply line open. The merchants will be making a killing on this product and take care of the people all the way down the line. This translates into power, and from a DM stand point, this stuff writes itself.





Naturally, most rural places won't have these peaches, but they will have other things. If we look at the area, we can generally decide how this network makes its living. A town high up in the mountains mining metal will have to have a lot of stuff shipped in just to survive up there.





FOOD, WATER, SHELTER these are the basics of survival. Grain and ancient mans ability to master it is what gave birth to culture. It isn't glamorous, but without grain the nation starves. Society is also dependent on water and man's ability to move it where it needs to go. Irrigation, supplying enough water for everyone in a city and moving dirty water out is required. There can be a rich supply of gold somewhere, but unless there is water for the miners it is going to stay there.





Then you have trees, this is a finite resource that had to be planned wisely. A large castle out in the boonies, though it looks like it is a stone structure, requires entire forests of timber to build. We don't need to go all realistic on our game, but timber is definitely a valuable resource, everybody wants it! All of our fancy cities and towns need wood to expand, it is used for everything from barrels, to carts, to ships, not to mention providing fuel. There is never enough wood, but what if a northern nation who can't grow grain has a huge surplus of lumber? This is when our worlds can expand!





Via: Pinterest

Global trade helps us on an even larger scale. Just as trade can help us figure out local politics, find adventure hooks, and provide color on a local level, this helps us color places that may not even be on our maps! We never have to draw them, either, they are just out there.





Lets say that the barbarians of the north exist. They have large cuts of meat, a surplus of fir, and wood. Now lets say that one of the tribes has become almost civilized, well, civilized enough to want to trade for some of our Iron. Politics will tell us that chances are that this brute is making steel, but we out number him and eating nothing but goat and fish is boring.





We also know that the other barbarian tribes aren't going to just stop attacking our northern border, but this union might give us a foothold and allow us to make some threats. We'll tell the barbarian “King” that we'll trade. We know he is planning an attack, but so are we. We covet those trees and eventually we'll push the barbarians back, and give more power to this so called King as long as he is behaving.





None of this will matter to the folks who have to live on the norther border, but we DMs will know it, and use this information to help us figure out what is going on.





Politics! Politics is a hard concept to grasp, but if we use global trade this abstract idea is easier to manage.





Lets get to the lists, shall we?





I don't care if you use Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, or whatever; this stuff will be present. I'm going to use real world terms and let you figure out where this stuff goes. These products are a sampling of global trade during the medieval ages, now keep in mind that these resources are large enough that a nation or region can afford to trade them off for stuff that they don't have, so at least one of these items will appear on a detailed play map. You don't want the country that the players are actively in trading something like tin without ever seeing a single community dedicated to extracting this resource. It is meant to be a tool to help you world build faster.





BRITISH ISLES

Coal

Textiles

Tin





SCANDINAVIA

Copper

Iron

Tallow

Timber





NORTHERN EUROPE

Iron

Copper

Lead

Silver

Wine

Textiles

Coal





EASTERN RUSSIA

Amber

Flax

Fur

Hemp

Honey

Slaves

Tallow

Timber

Wax

Whalebone



THE BALKANS

Carpets

Copper

Gold

Horses

Iron

Mercury

Paper

Precious Stones

Silver

Slaves

Textiles





NORTH AFRICA

Cotton

Gold

Ivory

Salt

Slaves





WEST AFRICA

Gold

Ivory

Precious Woods

Slaves





MIDDLE EAST

Animals

Carpets

Copper

Iron

Naphtha

Paper

Textiles





WESTERN CHINA

Carpets

Copper

Drugs

Gold

Indigo

Iron

Precious Stones

Precious Woods

Textiles





EASTERN CHINA

Brocade

Fine Textiles

Jade

Rhubarb

Silk

Slaves





SOUTH EAST ASIA/PHILIPPINES

Brocade

Camphor

Porcelain

Satin

Silk

Sugar

Taffeta

Tea





INDONESIA

Aromatics

Drugs

Gold

Precious Wood

Spices

Tin





INDIA

Ambergris

Aromatics

Cowries

Drugs

Indigo

Ivory

Precious Stones

Spices

Textiles

Tortoise Shell





SOURCE: Copied from Copied from pulse.pharmacy.arizona.edu/ggg/…/trade_medieval_handout.doc





This list is fascinating, and tells us a ton of information in very little space. Naturally, not all of these countries trade, either because of vast distances, or because they were politically opposed to each other.





You can google for endless examples of major and minor trade routes and how they worked. Here is an example of one I like, though it is a bit earlier than the specific age we are focusing on, it gives a great guideline.













Those long trade routes over land are interesting. Naturally the people who use them trade their way along, but they are crossing boarders, and it is in each country's best interests to maintain and protect these roads. You can see politics at work!





Now, naturally, with a fantasy map of just part of the world, we won't know all of this information, but it still shows how things were shipped, and just how vast that even an early network could be in a time where pop history likes to point out how terrible these peoples lives were.





I want to say that much of this was built during the Roman empire, but I would lay money that these ancient routes are still used even today.





What we get from figuring this stuff out is a chance to show off. We can give news from far away lands, figure out how political conflict would interfere with trade, follow culture and customs back to their source, introduce exotic elements, religions, and customs, and keep entire populations busy with very little fuss.





FURTHER READING:











