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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 787450" data-attributes="member: 7240">My understanding of Mor's End's social structure is that people have overlapping affiliations -- guild, religious, political. However, there seems no sign so far of competing affiliations. So, I'm going to offer a few ideas:There should be a minimum of two merchant associations/guilds. Each guild should be chartered by the city and should enjoy different rights and privileges. I'd therefore like to suggest that there be the Mor's End Merchants' Council and the Red Lion Mercantile League. The Mor's End Merchants' Council has historically been the main governance body for traders within the city. And it has jealously guarded the hereditary rights of the city's merchant class, requiring that all goods changing hands in the city which are not purchased directly from the manufacturer be purchased from merchants affiliated with the Council, who then pay a small transaction fee to said Council. The Board of Governors of the Merchants' Council is self-appointing, largely following hereditary lines for replacing members who die or resign but has occasionally been known to appoint upstart merchants, often in exchange for private agreements between the wealthy upstart and the existing merchant elite.The Red Lion Mercantile League, until recently, was not chartered by the city. It was formed by the city's wealthiest craftsmen unhappy with the commercial practices of the Council and the widespread practice of price fixing for important imported goods. The League simply found that by setting up a grey market merchants' association operating out of the larger mills and shops in the city, it paid less in fines for violating city ordinances than the Council levied in excise taxes. The League's growth has also been spurred by its willingness to admit non-citizens to membership, thereby snapping up some of the best-connected traders whose recent arrival makes them ineligible for direct citizenship. Certain neighbourhoods, especially the Fisherman's District have been damaged by the ongoing illicit fights for territory between the Council and the League.</blockquote>

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