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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 1928624" data-attributes="member: 7240">I think there is an error here in assuming that most economic actors are (a) profiting or (b) conscious of profit. Before the advent of ciphering (Arabic-style mathematics), there was little or no effective bookkeeping in Europe. People judged the success of their business based on how busy they were (hence the name); many businesses that deemed themselves successful were actually losing money constantly but were shielded from it for reasons such as: (a) a credit-based economy where key artisans were increasinly mutually indebted to eachother for materials and the like, (b) the absorption of production or materials costs by other profitable businesses, (c) the absorption of costs/losses through the use of common goods shared by a collective group or borrowed from an aristocrat, (d) the siting of production on manors or the like where taxation or warfare effectively subsidized all enterprises. Actually, shipping and handling costs, in the past were often either charged separately or understood to be a hidden tax or surcharge. So, based on my assumptions about the fixity of costs, I would be inclined to assume that item costs, as listed in the core rules, do not include shipping and handling.EDIT: Although I could have sworn I saw a post about this when I first read the thread, I cannot now find it for the life of me. So forgive me if I'm repeating something that has already been addressed. Merchants have an additional cost in that they are the only people who maintain an inventory. Virtually all purchases from primary producers are going to be for commissioned items-- artisans need not maintain and are not expected to maintain inventories. Only merchants must do that.</blockquote>

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