Empires, Trade, and Gold!

[SHARK]

Greetings!

I was recently working on some campaign details, and as I was developing different colonies of the Vallorean Empire, I chewed on the flow of economic power from colonies to the mother-country, through a system of Mercantilism. I suppose I'm not too keen on the typical "poor community" model that is inferred from economics in the DMG. Certainly, smaller, frontier communities aren't going to be wealthy, but in my campaign world, the whole world or continent isn't solely based on a poor, Dark Ages Europe. Some areas are enormous empires, with more in common with Rome, Egypt, or quasi-17th century Britain. Thus, there are some empires that are IMMENSELY wealthy.

Along these lines, how do you "fund" empires in your campaigns? Do you experiment with different economic models?

Imagine the wealth of the Roman Empire, or Britain, or of ancient Egypt. In your campaigns, if you do have such a sophisticated and vast economic machine, how has that SYSTEM changed and impacted the larger campaign world, and its underlying assumptions?

For example, in my campaign, I have the Vallorean Empire that has established Trading Companies that are located on the southern continent, where they have fortresses, ports, and trade networks. From these colonies, the trading companies have established shipping lines that bring ivory, gold, exotic woods, spices, and animals back to the Vallorean Empire. These Trading Companies have Royal Charters that provide them with the legal authority, under the cover of political treaties with several local kingdoms. These Trading Companies have fleets, as well as liveried mercenary companies that work for them. These companies have established great trade-routes that funnel great wealth into the Vallorean Empire. This has vast effects of changing the standard of living for many in the empire, as well as developing political and economic relationships that must be protected, and maintained.

Monsters, pirates, and rival kingdoms are always a threat. Of course, there are also spies to deal with as well. Still, it is one detailed facet that justifies a *different* kind of economic model that supports society back in the empire.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[Cake Mage]

MY world is a trade machine. I have basically 4 main countries. two arew based of militery types and 2 are more technicaly advanced but with low magic area. Then i have a main island where all the ships from the miliant countries trade to. Right now there is a slow technical advancement going on between all the countries and their is a war between 2 countries as well. All with the coming of the under dark and a powerful group of magic users that plan on taking over the world. few... Its a lot but its so much fun for me

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Mongoose's SEAS OF BLOOD sourcebook has a great medieval fantasy trade table with just about every type of commercial commodity and trade good given a gold piece value by weight. I liked it almost enough to buy the book, but didn't because I don't see a nautical-themed campaign in my group's future, so $20 for a trade table seemed like a bad investment of my gaming dollar... Otherwise, if I was doing a nautical campaign, I would buy SEAS OF BLOOD over FFG's nautical HC sourcebook.

 

[SHARK]

*BUMP*

 

[Broken Fang]

Hey SHARK,

So what is your question exactly?

I have a few powerful empires/kingdoms in my campaign. Most of them are just breaking even and some are going broke.

The powerful empires are active in many parts of the world, the ones breaking even are often trying to ally themselves with each other or a powerful mation, but in doing so not becoming a puppet. The bankrupt countries are sometimes taken over and rebuilt in essence by larger and more powerful countries. Some are left to fester as they are not worth the effort.

I'm more than intrested to discuss this but am not quite sure where you are going.

 

[Corinth]

Honestly, I do not worry about the economics of my campaign worlds. The reason is that economics is not my strong point; I'm not confident enough in my understanding of the field to make proper use of it in my campaigns.

By the same note, some pointers would be quite handy.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

If your not in the market for a dedicated source book, then you may want to take a look at a PC game called "Trade Empires". The game is aimed at the idea of getting rich through trade. The commodities used fit a wide range of time periods. They also can give you a better idea of what makes for decent Art Object type treasures.

Here is a quick list of some of the objects that come off of the top of my head.

Gold Ingots, Silver Ingots: Used to make Jewelery with various gems (Pearl, Jade, Ruby, Amethyst, whatever). Also demanded by Mints, and religious structures.

Jewelry: Demanded by Religious structures and Palaces.

Silk Cloth, Wool Cloth, Linen Cloth: A basic consumer good. Worth much more if dyed.

Wood: Used in construction of other goods (Furniture, Arrows), and demanded by ship yards.
Copper Ingots, Brass Ingots, Bronze Ingots, Iron Ingots: Used for MANY things. All are used for various weapons. Copper is used for Copper Urns. Brass is used for Brass Lamps. Bronze is used for Bronze Urns.

Pottery: A consumer good. Worth more when dyed.
Beer, Wine, Rum, Tobacco: All are consumer goods.
Incense, 'Medicinal' Drugs: Demanded by religious structures. (Though nothing is outright implied, the raw "Herb"'s resemblance to Marijuana is suspicious.

Carnellian Seals, Jade Carvings, Ivory Carvings: Demanded by Palaces and Religious structures.

Weapons, Armor: Demanded by Military structures and Palaces.

The basic premise of the trade goods is that they need to be produced near their source, and then in turn, sold to structures that demand them. The twist is that new technology can cut off the demand for the newly inferior product. If you were selling Bronze Swords, and Iron smelting is discovered, suddenly, you can no longer make money selling Bronze Swords.

If you want to have a consistent economy, you can pick a core Raw material and in turn, its finished products. Then, decide where those products are in demand. The possibilities for manipulation of a well established system are nearly endless. However, it would not be a good thing to base too much of your campaign on the aquisition of wealth by trade. Your players want to be Hero's. Not Merchants.
END COMMUNICATION

 

[Valorian]

I think a lot of things depend on the time scale of your campaign, a lot of the great empires realized great wealth by opening up new frontiers for both trade and conquest...are their portions of your world which are still unknown (ie Here are Dragons...the cool thing about D&D is they just might be right), or is most of the map "civilized".

BTW: I (Valorian) like the name of your empire.
Its good to be King/Emperor

 

[kenjib]

Hi Shark,

How does this tremendous influx of wealth contribute to inflation ala the influx of Spanish gold and silver from the New World? How long have these colonies existed for? Long enough for the economy to become more stable?

 

[Dieter]

In a game I was playing in, basically you had three different measures of wealth with your economic systems based on gold, silver, or copper standards.

The wealthiest nations (two in this particular world) basically controlled the lesser nations since everything (in the end) was based on gold being the highest primary currency.

You can easily see travelers from these 2 countries going into the poorer regions and buying up property and goods like it was going out of style. There was a kicker to this concepts.

One region (loosely based on Athas) had an economic system based on ceramic discs, with an exchange rate of 1000 disks to one gp. While practical as ceramic currency was in a bloody hot desert environment, the high rollers (including me) thought they could clean up. We teleported to the region with our sacks of gold, ready to own the country before nightfall. Little did we (or should I say our characters) expect that bringing that much gold to a land where the metal is revered as sacred and extremely rare...well, we couldn't buy crap and the gold became cumbersome in the 140F mid-day heat.

Another anecdote is of my character who single handedly devaluated one the aforementioned wealthy nation's currency from gold to silver. Imagine the worst of corruption, combining the debauchery of Emperor Nero with the audacity of Louis XIV.
Yup, that was my guy. Extravegance and splendor were no object. Within two years of ascending to power, I turned the once great nation into a 2nd World toilet bowl.