>I don't think we can take KoDP for a model. Firstly even Heortling
>society changes and secondly KoDP looks at a very early stage in the
>economic development of Sartar. The first city is only built at the end
>of the game.
Well, you certainly have a point there. On the other hand, it's clear that clan rings are still in existence in the 1600s, and I have a hard time believing they would have given up the economic power control of large-scale trade brings.
By the 1620s there are caravans that regualarly go not just
>over to the next clan but from Esrolia to Sartar to Tarsh to the Lunar
>Empire and beyond. And there are merchants who travel with them and
>merchants who just stay behind and finance the ventures.
I think, for the most part, clans and tribes (maybe bloodlines) finance large-scale ventures. If you want merchant princes, the West seems a better bet to me than Sartar.
No, I believe
>that literacy and numeracy are going to be needed for Issaries merchants
>in 'modern' Sartar or the Lunars are going to take them to the cleaners.
I'm sure that the Lunars are taking them to the cleaners. After all, Pelorian merchants won't have to pay the extra taxes and war debts. No doubt small traders are encouraged to convert from Issaries to more acceptable cults (or maybe accept Lunarized doctrines) to get a bigger slice of the pie. Anyway, I think you are over-stressing the importance of literacy and advanced record keeping to trade. The ancient world seems to have gotten along without it reasonably well I'm not saying that Issarions have no recordkeeping or mathematical ability; however, I do believe that Heortling trade is based on personal relationships and oral agreements backed by trust and witnesses than more modern ideas of written contracts. All, of course, in my opinion, except for the observation that the Issaries keyword does not contain literacy skills (and Greg has said that LM literacy is a specialty of the cult).
Peter Larsen
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