I'll summarize my sources' most interesting facts for your perusal both on Glorantha and on Alternate Earth.
My campaign is located in northern Heortland, so I intended to place this fair in the City (and independent Barony) of Karse, like Kiel (in the period mentioned) a port city and enjoying (?) a politically special role.
Kiel was a city of the Duchy of Holstein, which belonged to the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation but was ruled together with the Danish duchy of Schleswig in personal union by the Danish King, or by close relatives of his. Karse, as portrayed in the Chaosium publication "City of Carse", is a Barony with close cultural and religious links to the Kingdom (replace the Kingdom of the Isles with the Kingdom of Heortland), whose Baron maintains a course of independence from the King in Durengard, but loyality to the Pharaoh/Bretwalda in the City of Wonders and the Holy Country as a whole (as of 1615/16, when my campaign is currently playing).
The Kieler Umschlag was an annual fair which took place early in January (later in February). Everybody owing money or property or having given money in loan had to appear at the Umschlag and either pay back the loan or renew it for another year. Creditors who didn't turn up (or failed to appoint a deputy) gave up their claim for the loaned sum. The Umschlag lasted for eight days. Unclaimed loans went void after this, whereas unpaid debts empowerd the creditor to seize the possessions staked as safety for the loan (in theory, in praxis this wasn't always feasible - very much like the wergeld claims settled by the Iceland thing: Those powerful enough could neglect their debts to those lacking power).
However, there was a custom and/or law which allowed a creditor to summon his debtors to the city and put them into house arrest (in one of the hostels) if they didn't pay until a day fixed in the contract (the whole fair week counted as one day of business). Even the king of Denmark and the Duke of Holstein were subject to this form of extortion. Another source tells of the conditions by which this arrest could be temporarily suspended - in case of plague, fire and similar it was allowed to spend the arrest "in a safe place". If a debtor died while in arrest, his mortal remains could remain unburied for quite a long time or would get only an incomplete funeral. (Favoured debtors, or sufficiently powerful ones, would be allowed to leave their quarters for the time of their arrest, but not to leave the city. This was fixed as a law in 1630.)
This custom died down when the noble debtors started to hold feasts and bring along full retinues into the arrest, thereby ruining the creditor, but this occurred only when the absolutism had broken out. To counter this, the 1630 law fixed the cost of this arrest to 3 shilling per day.
Believe it or not, but the creditor even had the right to have caricatures produced of wayward debtors in arrest, and publicly displayed on the church wall - this reminds strongly of the Celtic bards' satire, but is found in medieval finances as well... needless to say that it caused as much bad blood as too harsh satires did in ancient Ireland.
Reports mention whole wagonloads of coined money transported to Kiel over roads in really sorry conditions.
This also made Kiel a lucrative seat for advocates - these scribes were kept busy the whole year to prepare and administrate the loan on and the sale of land. In the 18th century there were 15 advocates officiating in Kiel, which had only 7000 inhabitants at that time. They also handled Umschlag-business for their clients.
The honesty of the populace was legendary - there is an anecdote where a porter who had several sacks full of money on a handcart which toppled. Instead of taking advantage of this accident, the hangers-on formed a circle around the unlucky porter to allo him to gather up all the coins he had lost. None was missing...
In another anecdote, one merchant accidentally put 100 Taler too many into one bag and the same amount too little into another one which he sealed afterwards and gave them to a landholder (along with two more bags containing 300 Taler each). When the landholder later opened one of the bags and found it to contain only 200$, he sent his scribe to look for the bag. The scribe asked each of the three recipients of one of the bags. The first two had opened the bag and checked the amount, but the third had trusted the seal and passedon the bag. It had gone through six hands before the recipient opened it and found himself in possession of 100$ too many. Instead of keeping the excess secret, he sent out hhis scribe to check who had paid too much. The two scribes met, and the recipient of the excess 100$ was happy that the problem could be resolved so easily.
Nevertheless, there were con-men, coin-clippers, forgers and unhonest merchants attracted to the Umschlag. Thererfore hard laws were passed - everybody caught at fraud aced confiscation of _all_ his porperty carried upon him. No wonder the merchant above was so eager to resolve the mystery of the excess amount.
All payments had to be made in coin, and often the type of coin was specified in the contracts. During the Umschlag, some merchants' houses were filled literally with barrels and sacks full of coins, transported there on carts. The sources mention substantial payments to serving folk who most probably doubled as guards. With coins denoted as shilling (I assume these to equal a RQ3 Penny/lunar/guilder/sovereign etc., with different mints as origin causing slight devaluation or trust) and 16 of these adding up to a Mark (and coins of smaller value called Pfennig, 12 of which made up one shilling - roughly clacks in RQ terms), the bill (from 1597) has:
21 mark Sacks to transport the money
8 shilling 1 pound of seal wax
4 m 8 s 1 Ries paper
33 m 11 s 6 Pf 1/2 food for 4 persons for 25 days
23 m 11 s 6 Pf general cost (timber, taxes, safekeeping,
light, presentation, etc)
27 m 9 s 6 Pf 1/2 food (and service) of "Fritz and his boy"
for 23 days
17 m 14 days service (and 1/2 food?) of one man
30 m 3 s 6 Pf another man with his boy, 29 days
29 m 1 s 3 Pf yet another man with his boy, 25 days
3 m 1 s 6 Pf storage of money in the church vaults
143 m 3 Pf in summation.
This is a considerable amount of administrative cost for just one merchant in one year's trade. (When translating this to Glorantha think of a Garzeen Middleman merchant.)
In addition to the financial fair, a fair of traders and crafters was held parallelly. However, only specified goods were allowed to be sold during the fair, and sellers were restricted to crafters from certain guilds and cities. I'll spare you the boring details for now.
For the Gloranthan version of this event I expect the main financers and traders to assemble in Karse at an appointed day (Harmony Week in Sea Season?). The greater trade houses and organisations will assemble or send deputies: the Nochet Capratis, du Tumerine, Goldgotti; native traders like Gunnar Halfstead or the Alhazara (in my and Jeff's version Kostaddi sable people) Etyries mission; and landholders and guildmasters from Hendrikiland. A certain Gringle Goodsell and other Sartarite traders as well as Argan Argar uz from the Shadow Plateau and the Kitori tribe can be expected in person or via a deputy.
Scenario ideas:
One debtor hires ruffians (read: PCs) to delay or prevent a creditor from appearing at the fair.
Guard a transport of cash from whatever dangers my arise.
A friend or sponsor of the PCs is put into house arrest, the PCs have to fetch the money to release him, chop chop.
Side plots as per typical city visits: crime stories, nightly carousing, burglary, assassination attempts, etc.
I hope you find this useful. If anybody objects to the sophistication of this method of banking, I am willing to discuss this, both on the digest and in private. But keep in mind that God Forgot with its Casino Town is close, as is mercantyle Nochet.
BTW: Does anyone have names for Handran or Wenelian trade houses? Just the Capratis and du Tumerines from Nolos/Pasos seem a bit meagre.
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