TEH RULZ

Hte number 7, It will be better if its count production (the shop in the city that you can buy)

Yeah, we will never know how many travellers were ganked by a merchant and their guards, and their goods sold on at the next town.

Unless they were funded or given miltary protection by the goverment, your merchants of venice is a great example. The goverment of venice gave monolpoly rights to a select few and the monolplies could call in the troops if another trader got in his way. I concide defeat in saying that no bissnes called assassins on another.

But in your instances all of these merchants had to clim up the political ladder to get away with what thay did.

Yep.

I like where you're going and it's nice to see a bit of roleplay, number 7 is a bit odd though. What about bandit/faction parties that attack you, are you not allowed to sell the loot you get? Alright, then I would add a new rule in that the only units you may use are Caravan guards/Mercenaries. I would actually make that optional as come later the prices for those units would be asburd but yeah.

Historically it's rare that any one single merchant had sway over nations to be able to declare war, but claiming that no business historically has attempted to kill another business leader is a bit silly. Patricians in the Hanseatic League were at each other's throats constantly, funding privateers to rob rival merchants, and they competed with merchants from Mediterrean too.

I don't know, just saying that no merchant in the history of ever never did anything underhanded to another is a lie.

But there have been zero instances of a bisness hireing assisins or waging war against another bissness, simply beacuse wars are expencive and hurts PR. Now if you are talking about the British East India co. , who waged a ton of wars, was backed by the british goverment, both fincancaly and millatarly. You are right that in a true free market system these wars could happen but do not due to their cost.

Actually with free market economics, hostile takeovers of other merchants businesses is completely normal.

If an opposing merchant convoy has a majority of it's interests invested into that certain trade, hiring assassins, or thugs to take those goods is perfectly logical. Obviously you can't do this ingame but leading a group of troops and destroying them? Totally fine.

Yes but the guide says "Free market merchant" not Arab Slave trader.

Yes, I am indeed saying that merchants were often brigands.

Slave traders, the people that raided, beat people up and sold them off, were also merchants.