the trader's council

This council of assigned members by the king. He chooses from the largest and wealthiest of the merchant families. Some of these families do not even come from the realm. This is an extremely power group and families have killed to be put on the list. It is more like a wholesale house. There are many council members, the head of the Council is known as Chief Council. This position is nonannotated and voted on by the council members. The council sets pricing once a year, this price moves up or down depending on quality of product and quantity available.

1. Shipping: This is all water and land bound shipping in the realm. All shipping vehicles have to be inspected and branded. This branch of the council is broken down into two sub organizations: The Caravanners and the Merchant Navy.
2. Lumber: All lumber production in the realm. this includes all cutting, processing, milling, and sell of wood products.
3. Mineral: all production of minerals which include gems, precious metals, stone, salt. Mining falls under this category.
4. Grain: Farmers Guild. all production of grain within the realm. Rice, Wheat, barley, oats, grasses. This includes seeds of all types. food production for the realm falls under this category. All Farming falls under this category. Farmers are paid in grain per family, based on what it cost to feed a family for one year. This leaves very little for the farmers to progress upward in society. If the farmer is a landowner, he is required to pay tax in form of grain. The amount of tax is determined by the council every year.
5. Construction: Builders guild. Public, private, government within the realm. They set the price of labor for the year and give approval for outside labor to work in the realm. This is a very powerful arm of the council; they are the bulk of the labor.
6. Merchants: these are the individuals that sell the items produce from raw materials and produced by the other groups throughout the realm. Example: a barrel maker falls under the lumber council. if the barrel maker sells the product to the general public than they also fall under the Merchants council. This is called direct trade. any and all direct trade falls under the Merchants council.

This seemed was setup by the King some 50 years ago and is very clouded by corruption and inefficient regulations. Petty disagreements and backstabbing is normal. Power struggles happen constantly. territory and resources are being handled by the council not the king. fights between groups are commonplace.

Type

Geopolitical, City council