>Secondly in the Travels of Biturian Varosh, we are told that most of
>the other merchants in Corflu were Lunars, and that at least some of
>the Lunars had horses rather than mules (which to me suggests that
>they were Etyries rather than Issaries). Yet the priest in charge
>of the market was a Lunar Issaries cultist, (because he is a Lunar,
>but he has to become a desert tracker when he gets the piece of
>Genert's skin, which presumably an Etyries cultist would not have
>to do).
Etyries is the daughter of Issaries (or at least was under RQII, that isn't mentioned in the ILH2 writeup). She inherits her father's obligation to reassemble Genert. In general I think Issaries followers within the Lunar Empire tend to switch to Etyries because of the taxation and trading advantages it gives them.
>Can one itake this a step further, and infer from this that some or
>all of Glorantha has a "lex mercatoria" (system of commercial law
>independent of any city or state used by merchants to regulate their
>own affairs), and which crosses national (or cult?) lines? Or was
>this litle story just an anomaly from the remotest fringes of the
>Lunar Empire, and the kind of thing that might happen in a frontier
>town, but it would not be repeated in a culture's heartland? Or is
>this simply an aberration from c. 30 years ago?
I doubt it is as formal as a lex mercatoria. That would require a level of communications between cultures which I don't think Glorantha has. I think everywhere markets exist the predominant local merchants cult determines a set of rules for that market. Foreign traders learn what those rules are and agree to abide by them if they wish to trade there. In most cases those rules are similar because they serve the same purpose - to encourage honest trade. However local practices and prejudices will often create problems like those Biturian encountered in Corflu. The result will usually damage the market by restricting trade and may cause other markets to retaliate. I'm inclined to think the market at Corflu reflects the rest of the place - no one wants to be there so they take their misery out on everyone else.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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