Trade in Malfa
The Maveren have been traders for centuries—that’s why Malfa exists—but trade for them is direct and in person: give me that, and I’ll give you this. Con- tracts, supply chains, infrastructure, this is all for lit- tle people to care about. These days more Maveren take an active interest in their household’s businesses, but a more usual/traditional attitude would be to tell a thrall, “Let me know if contract negotiations don’t go well, and I’ll kill somebody.”
Most of the actual commerce in Malfa is done by free persons (mostly human, but not all), and/ or overseen by thralls. The Maveren’s main practical input is that they guarantee the safety of the trade routes, and the goods while they’re in Malfa. Maveren are very clear that they’re owed a cut of all the action, but they don’t appear much in business settings.
Smuggling
There’s always a temptation to bring goods through Malfa without paying the Maveren their tithe, especially since Malfa tends to attract the more criminal-adjacent type of merchant. There’s a fair amount of smuggling on the docks, but so far it’s not centralised; there’s no single smuggling ring. Instead any given merchant from overseas, with a couple of cargo ships to their name, will have an arrangement with the particular dockworkers at their mooring in Malfa to unload a few extra crates without comment.
There’s competition between smugglers, but the more important thing is that nobody wants the Maveren to know about any of it. Regular crimes like thieving are looked after by the pickets, but if there’s a big enough scene at the docks, like a gang war, at least one Maver will show up and want to know what’s “interfering with trade.”
The Jewel Game
This is a competition and a conspiracy the free mer- chants in Malfa (and overseas) play with each other. The Maveren come and go, trading and raiding, bringing loot back to Malfa and then wandering off again. Over the centuries there are some valuable artifacts that “belong” to a Maveren household historically, but have been lost track of; they’ve gone missing or just generally wandered off into Malfa.
When somebody finds or acquires one of these artifacts (usually jewellery), the free merchants of Malfa secretly bid on it, to see who will buy it. The winner of the auction gets to take the Maveren jewellery for themselves, on the condition that they take it out of Malfa and never bring it back.
This is a way of tweaking the Maveren’s noses, and of showing off to each other how rich they are.
Primary Related Location