Shipping and profitability

[TheMentat]

I was curious as to people's thoughts on shipping in the DND world.
How much would a standard merchant be bringing in monthly?
What exactly are the specifics of say, a Sailing Ship? How long would one voyage likely be?
What kind of cargo would be useful?
How might he rise above the competition? or what fields would be without competition?
How much money would he need to get started?
What if he was not entirely honest with customs or port authority?
What would his profits be if he engaged in smuggling, or unfair competition with scare tactics? and how might be the best way to go about this?
Any general suggestions or cool ideas?

thanks

 

[Crothian]

I don't know alot about this, but I'll try to offer some insight. Merchants can carry a lot of common items that people always need. The exact list should vary from place to place, but common things would be easy to transport food not found around there, resources like a particuliar stone or type of wood that isn't found around there, certain finished products, ect. The merchant can also find a city with a huge surpluss of say canvas sacks. They buy the sacks cheap hoping to sell them somewhere in their travels. Ussually, you wouldn't fill your whole cargo with one item, but many items. Or you can get that rare item that is expensive, but might be hard to get rid of either cause of the price or it's illegal, or some other reason.

Most of your questions deal in specifics. If you have the FRCS you can look on pages 88-89 for a bunch of good ideas on what people ship. There's also a second edition product Called Aura's something or other that offers a bunch of merchant type products.

 

[Chimera]

These things would vary greatly, depending on the Setting, the local economics, the Merchant, the local governments, the commodity, etc, etc, so exact answers cannot be forthcoming.

I was recently trying to figure out what "cost" would be on transporting a regular 5-wagon caravan eight times a year to a small village in high hills over 300 miles from a big city. Came to a pretty high figure, given local wages, the price of horses, etc. The Merchant had to add a 200% markup just to cover his costs!

On the other hand, if you're a local merchant carrying goods between the big city and all it's local farm villages, then you're going to be turning over your stock much more frequently.

"Not entirely honest with Customs...". I guess the success of that depends on the gullibility of the local authorities, and their access to spells like 'Zone of Truth' and 'Detect Thoughts'. I would expect any decent power to use these spells to exact the proper level of taxation. No 5th Amendment or need for a Search Warrant.

 

[Crothian]

"Not entirely honest with Customs...". I guess the success of that depends on the gullibility of the local authorities, and their access to spells like 'Zone of Truth' and 'Detect Thoughts'. I would expect any decent power to use these spells to exact the proper level of taxation. No 5th Amendment or need for a Search Warrant.

Of course there will be a fee for having them cast zone of truth on you. Those spells don't get cast for free and the local churches need the revenue. You can, of course refuse the interigation, but they won't let you into the city or give you the proper permits that allow you to sell your wears.

 

[TheMentat]

ok, without all the customs interferacne
What is a standard shipping cost of say... 100 lbs of "whatever"
How much would a ship owner generally charge to transport goods?

 

[Chimera]

Again, that is highly variable and we can't give you "x amount".

How far apart are the two locations? Is it a three day sail, or a six month voyage? Are there dangers along the way? Is this between two very rich ports, or two pissant fishing villages?

Here's some advice: Take the size of the ship, figure out the crew. Then figure the total monthly wages for that crew, based on your economic system. Figure in at least 10% of the ship's cost per year in maintenance, and another 10% for it's eventual replacement. Higher if the owner is paying off a loan. Then add another 50% +minimum+ for unexpected costs and repairs, tolls and port fees, etc.

Now take the average sailing distance per voyage, and calculate the average sailing time. Add at least 50% to that figure, if not 100%, since ships do not move their maximum speed very often.

Now you can figure out the owner's cost for the voyage. Divide by the cargo space (or about 50-80% of the cargo space, since it's unlikely that they'll always travel at full capacity).

Just do this once, and you will have a good ball-park figure for what it costs to ship goods in your world. Doesn't even need to be that exact, as long as you pad the figure a bit.