23a:Merchant noble

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

v53.10 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31 · v0.28 · v0.23.130.23a This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

A merchant noble is a noble which arrives from Human civilizations (and any others with [PLAINS_SETTLEMENTS] to negotiate trade agreements.

There are 3 separate ranks of merchant nobles, all of which are effectively identical:

• The Guild Representative, which arrives once you have a broker
• The Merchant Baron, which arrives once you have a trade minister
• The Merchant Prince, which arrives once you have a guildmaster

If a particular rank of merchant noble dies, you will never get a new one in order to establish further trade agreements; however, the higher ranked versions will take over once you have the appropriate noble present.

Interaction

The merchant noble you receive will speak with whichever of your nobles "summoned" it - the broker, the trade minister, or the guildmaster. Its function is to ask which goods you would like to have sent with their next caravan (for a higher price), and inform you what goods they would like to buy from you the next time, which they too will pay extra to purchase.

Conducting a meeting in a public place can generate an unhappy thought. Conducting a meeting in the noble's private office can generate a happy thought based on the quality of the room.

They don't need to eat, drink, or sleep. There is a statement from one of our brokers on this:

Ironblood: "This damn human thingy keeps following me around, suckling on me when I pause for too long. I think it's a foreign custom, but I dare not emulate. He's all disgusting and clean. Though his clothes are almost completely rotted off..."

Requests

The meeting consists of 6 screens with breaks, the breaks giving your noble a welcome opportunity to walk away from the meeting for a snack. Don't think you are done until the merchant noble confirms it and says farewell!

1. "On behalf of the Merchants' Guild, let me extend greetings to your people. There is much to discuss."
2. "Let's discuss what we are willing to offer for your craftsmanship..."
3. "Well then, we have finalized the export agreement. Feel free to go over the documents."

   (view whatever goods the Human civilization wishes to buy from you, usually several types of weapons)

4. "What requests do you have of our merchants?"

   (decide which types of goods you want them to bring next year - see below)

5. "Well then, we have finalized the import agreement. Feel free to go over the documents."

   (view the requests you just made, along with the resulting price increases)

6. "Again on behalf of the Merchants' Guild, let me bid farewell to you and your stout dwarves."

Trade agreements with Human civilizations will allow you to request a wide variety of goods:

• Leather
• Cloth (but not thread), both plant and silk (though Human civilizations generally have no access to silk)
• Crafts of various materials - bone, leather, wood, jade, amber, and/or coral (depending on what they have access to)
• Pets - caged domestic animals (including any domesticated vermin they might know about)
• Drinks - various types of alcohol
• Cheeses
• Mill products - flours and dyes
• Extracts - animal (milk) and plant (golden salve and gnomeblight)
• Meat/Fish
• Plants (only edible ones)
• Meat/Fish Recipes - this category is always empty, a placeholder for content that was never made available. If non-empty, it would contain specific types of prepared meals.
• Other Recipes - see above.

Each type of good can be assigned a Priority using the arrow keys. For each level of priority, the caravan will attempt to bring one "unit" of that good next year (a bin of cloth/leather, a barrel of alcohol, a stack of 5 meat/plant/cheese, one caged animal, etc.) and will also increase the price you must pay for them.