[Discussion] Paying Merchants.

Sir ShaneHall has requested that the Council discuss and vote on a proposal to pay official merchants. Many citizens took part in the discussion, which can be found here. I believe it to be our duty to discuss this, since it is clearly something which the citizens took an interest in.

I move that this be adopted as a program run by the Duchy, similar to the SAS meat program. So I present to you the following, which was the end result (with minor changes) of the discussion mentioned above:

Quote :

Merchants Proposal


Article 1 - Official Merchants

Article 1.1.1 An official merchant is a merchant who is working for a town or the Duchy. All profits made on the trip shall be for the town or Duchy that employed the merchant. Official merchants do not include those merchants working for personal profits.

Article 1.1.2 All official merchants shall be recognized as official employees.

Article 1.1.3 Official merchants working for a town must be approved by the town's mayor.

Article 1.1.4 Official merchants are to conduct themselves as respectful citizens, and shall always abide by the laws of the territory in which they travel.

Article 2 - Merchant Guild

Article 1.2.1 A Merchants Guild shall be created and approved by the Duchy.

Article 1.2.2 The purpose of the Merchants Guild is to uphold the rights of official merchants. The Guild will also work to train official merchants.

Article 1.2.3 The Merchants Guild is open for all to view and ask for help. However there will be areas of the Guild available to members only.
For example current merchant deals and contacts shall remain behind closed doors.

Article 1.2.4 Bylaws for the Guild shall be voted on by the members and approved by the Duchy Council. Any changes to the bylaws shall be presented to the council for approval.

Article 1.2.4 Speaker of the Merchants Guild will be elected by the members of the Guild. The Speaker will be the official representative of the Guild the the Duchy Council and the public. Term length for the Speaker will be established in the bylaws. (O.O.C. The Speaker shall be the moderator of the Guild forum.)

Article 3 - Payment

Article 1.3.1 All official merchants, employed by a town or the Duchy, will be paid by the Duchy.

Article 1.3.2 Official Merchants will be paid according to their charisma. The amount of pay is subject to change by the Duchy, and shall be discussed with the Merchants Guild.

Pay scale: 0-50 charisma equals 17 pounds pay per day of travel, 51-100 charisma equals 18 pounds per day of travel, 101 - 150 charisma equals 19 pounds per day, and 151+ equals 20 pounds per day.

Article 1.3.3 Each town within the Duchy of Somerset will be allocated 12 paid days of travel per month, beginning on the first day of each month. Each town may use their alloted 12 Days paid travel whenever they please, but unused days do not roll over to the following month.

Truly, I believe considering the times that we need to create paid military positions before this is discussed. But the is just me.

I have no opinion one way or the other on this proposal.

I agree with Greg. I think you should open it as a discussion to use the vast resources of our treasury to recruit for the army, hire more marshals for each town, and start arming the recruits and marshals.

While I agree that military funding is a good topic for discussion, it should be in a separate thread.

"An army moves on its stomach." Thus I believe that merchants are equally important at this time, to both the county which they serve, but also as a supply line to our troops.

With two counties effectively blockaded in addition to the usual threat of robbers, we need to consider the safety of our merchants. Perhaps a clause for covering costs if a merchant is wounded or killed while in service could be added. A grant only protects the goods, an injured merchant would lose his personal funds, food, health and perhaps even stats, directly affecting his county pay, according to the proposed pay scale.

Suan wrote:

While I agree that military funding is a good topic for discussion, it should be in a separate thread.

"An army moves on its stomach." Thus I believe that merchants are equally important at this time, to both the county which they serve, but also as a supply line to our troops.

With two counties effectively blockaded in addition to the usual threat of robbers, we need to consider the safety of our merchants. Perhaps a clause for covering costs if a merchant is wounded or killed while in service could be added. A grant only protects the goods, an injured merchant would lose his personal funds, food, health and perhaps even stats, directly affecting his county pay, according to the proposed pay scale.

Exactly why we need to fund the SAS to protect the roads from such things and act as protective escort for merchants. An armed retinue escorting the merchant will not encounter problems unless they run into an army in the attack mode.