In Beginnings
The society divided itself between three societal categories that included the clergy, the peasants and the fighters. Merchants were not considered as part of these three categorizations and were largely discriminated against.
The clergy, the peasants and the nobility considered the merchant as one who was seeking to enrich himself at the expense of society. Meanwhile this same society increasingly depended on merchants for the distribution of much needed goods.
The merchant class, the clergy was vehemently opposed to merchant activities such as banking and trading. The clergy convinced the community that these activities were evil and against all the God’s will. As such, people would blame the merchants for natural catastrophes including disease, floods or famine as a punishment to the community.
Notably, the nobility were particularly disdainful of the merchants who, in the eyes of the nobility, were perceived as misers. The nobility’s behavior was in contrast to that of the merchants; the noblemen were known to be spendthrifts while the merchants were keen on calculating the losses and profits of their trade.
The nobility became richer, and the peasants were better placed to purchase goods that the merchants came with from other countries. The main merchant traders were the humans, the Gnomes and the Halflings.
Merchants engaged in fierce confrontations over trade routes, through which they brought in good such as raw material, precise metals, gems, silk, perfumes, foods and spices. The time of wars, some of the bloodiest wars were not just about religion, they were also about different groups of merchants seeking to gain control of the major trade routes throughout the edge and all of the boundaries of the world.
Merchants earned a position as those who worked, but their social standing was certainly much higher than that of the peasants. As the peasants toiled in the field and the lords made merry in their castles, the merchants were busy travelling across the seas and making connection with the many city states. They went as far as
Minas Galebre , DORIANDE, ETFORD and ETFORD as well as the city of the first light. Merchants were some of the wealthiest people in all of society; they held influential positions in local government and their children intermarried with those of the noblemen.
These guilds not only regulated and streamlined trade by they also made negotiations between the traders and local rulers easier. The main areas of contention were the taxes and levies that the local rulers imposed on the traders and the goods they traded.
The merchant guilds developed and established the rules of trade. Members of these guilds became influential society.
For example, the grand master of the merchant guild would often be appointed as the city or town mayor. The chief delegates of the guild would be appointed as the town Aldermen and other guild members became city or town burghers.
Common rules that the merchant guild established included a total ban on illegal trade by those who were not members of the guild. This was intended to make every merchant a member of the guild so that traders would work within this system.
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