Re: Trade goods in Glorantha

From: Todd Gardiner <todd.gardiner_at_JfRHE14Q6nVGfb3VTU1nQpXTdjgw6dMGGhHXz3Z2zrJntVHV-m3gqks465fK1O>
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:56:05 -0700

Conducting trade and shipping goods across long distances as a means of acquireing wealth certainly worked for the Phoenicians. And in the real world, as trade networks declined, so did the civilization that reaped the benefits of that trade (although it is still debated whether the trade decline was the casual factor or if it was a symptom). Certainly in Glorantha coastal cities are blooming with the Opening of the seas. Why?

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 9:40 PM, Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_EMP5Su2nHxXKTWsPPw6CX6TPhjLae_XW2YhXzBcoDdsRLH4wkaS97ab4liYVg6x7IouSxjRXF34I1YDPhtn6ikjq1SE.yahoo.invalid
> wrote:

>
>
> Todd Gardiner wrote:
>
> > Not sure if this is covered at all in Men of the Sea, but I was hoping to
> > find out what products are created for export from various regions
> (Peloria,
> > Maniria, Ralios, Technos, etc.) and who they trade these to. Especially
> > items that are Glorantha-specific, such as the drug Hazia or the rare
> > Truestone-crafted item or slave bracelets.
>
> Products created for export is such a modern term. In glorantha, all
> products are created for local use first and foremost and it is
> generally the surplus stock that gets traded through across cultural and
> national borders.
>
> An additional consideration is that the world is beginning to reunite
> after the catastrophes of earlier centuries (the Closing, the Syndics
> Ban, the Seleran Empire and so on). Pretty much all the countries are
> geared to self-sufficiency first and trade second. Most societies will
> consider that the best way to get rich is to kill other people and take
> their stuff rather than produce goods that other countries might like.
>
> Lastly I don't think that many of the organizations and religions
> (Issaries Goldentongue, Argan Argar, Vashanti, Etyries etc) involved in
> extensive trading are doing so primarily to get rich. They have higher
> motivations which will often interfere with sensible business practice.
>
> > One of the reasons listed for the Lunars to push themselves as far as
> Holy
> > Country was access to the sea so they could expand their trade and make
> the
> > aristocrats--and thereby the empire--more wealthy. But what are they
> > intending to export and import? That I have always been unclear on.
>
> It was always unclear because it never made much sense (and fraud was
> more plausible explanations as in the "East Isles Bubble"). I think the
> Lunars sought access to the sea for mythical reasons not commercial ones.
>
> --Peter Metcalfe
>
> _
>

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