Tulwood High Seas Company

The Tulwood High Seas Company is the largest merchant company operating out of Tulwood. Operating trading posts throughout the known world, its merchant fleet is larger and better armed than most of the world's navies, let alone other merchant enterprises.

Recruitment

The Tulwood High Seas Company is always expanding, as its leaders believe there is no limit to the amount of trade they can provide. So far, they have not been proven wrong. They hire a wide range of employees - any aspiring sailor is welcomed at any of their many outposts, and will generally find their first berth aboard the next ship to arrive. The Company pays a sizable signing bonus to attract more able bodied workers, though once hired, they are worked hard and serve long shifts.
The Company also maintains an auxiliary fleet by buying out independent trading vessels but allowing the captain to remain. Over the next 10 years or so, management changes are slowly "suggested" to bring the ship's operation into line with the main fleet, at which point less cooperative captains are dismissed to make way for one who sees the value of how the Company runs things.

Leadership

The Company operates in many ways as the overseas arm of the Free City of Tulwood. Its High Factor has been entitled to a position on the city's leading council since the dawn of the republic, and many its founding principles are carefully crafted to be advantageous to the Company. In particular, this includes features like the requirement that the republic act to safeguard the interests of its citizens, which binds the Navy to defend Company ships and outposts from attackers, and the principle of free trade which allows the Company to operate without much in the way of bureaucratic oversight.

Outposts

The Company operates outposts throughout the known world. Some of these outpost are walled port settlements built in a previously unused harbour, while others are simply a reserved pier and compound in a larger port. Most outposts operate according to Tulwood's laws, despite the lands still being officially a part of the host country. This is the result of a Company policy of only trading in their outposts, and only opening outposts upon the condition that they accept Tulwood's code of laws. Acceptance of these terms is often quite grudging, but the amount of trade the Company brings means that few can truly afford to refuse. Fewer still are the trading partners who bring so much to the table that the Company is willing to depart from its standard policy and operate outposts under foreign rule. Company outposts are required to only trade with Company ships and offer resupply to Tulwood Navy ships, with the unofficial exception of the floating town of Fortune.
This affords the Company two major trading advantages. The first is unresticted and minimally taxed shipments right to the doorstep of their intended recipients. Furthermore, it is illegal to restrict who the Company may trade with, so they quite happily deliver contraband across the seas to sell to smugglers who merely need to get it from within the outpost to the outside, at no legal risk. The second is protection from any legal requirements in the country they trade with - many countries require commoner merchants to give discounts to noble clientele, for instance, and Company employees have on more than one occasion been saved from severe penalties that might result from slighting wealthy (unknowing or otherwise). Outpost workers speak of leaving their compound to visit the country beyond as "going outside." This practice is generally discouraged by Company policy, as this legal shelter ends at the gates of the outpost.