Merchant's Guild, The

"A merchant is someone who figures out how to select, how to smell, how to identify, how to feel, how to time, how to buy, how to sell, and how to hopefully have two plus two equal six." Millard Drexler

"A world without order is a world without profit, and The Guild always turn a profit."

The history of the guild
After the sign of The Weisshaupt Accord that put the war to a rest, a group of Starkhaven merchants leaded by the famous jack of all trades Lucius Delaval took the chance of the new peace to recover Starkhaven market to the best condition, so the trade flow and profit be made.. They did quite good job over the few years they stayed together, protected the members of the group, helped many new merchants to enter the market, stabilized the prices of most important goods..

The success of the guild in its first years encouraged Lucius Delaval to aim for more, suddenly he traveled to Antiva on long business at 9:49 DA, his journey had more reasons than mere trade.. he wanted to learn how merchant princes of Antiva run the whole country hoping he could bring that model into Free marches, the sudden absence of Lucius left an empty hole in the guild structure, and being still small group that was critical. Strangely his youngest daughter Famke (who has been a chantry mother) volunteered to represent her father in the group, and in front of the suspicious eyes of members of the guild she did good job, preserved what was accomplished and even expanded the trade further, following totally different leading model than her father old ways..

The guild have gained over few months new members and powerful allies in high places. A noble from the Aurosa family joined and the guild gained great influence with the authorities through him. A merchant dwarf took over all the statements of the guild and proved his skill in managing all the accounts with ease and could save the guild nice money over few months. One of the foreign merchants who have joined with his very personal network of "contacts" over Starkhaven and the whole Free marches, making use of the strategic location of Starkhaven midway on the Minanter River which considered the main artery of all Free Marches, and Nevarra trade.

That helped the fast expansion of the guild both horizontally and Vertically. New small posts in other Free marches cities have founded and within a year the word "Merchant guild" have started to be a common word. Thus gained the guild much trust which helped its leaders to plot a request to the authorities for giving the guild more serious official registration, and have a cut of the taxes to spend on upgrading and maintaining the trade.. whether It will Succeed or cause them more trouble, that's something to be seen.

Sadly the sudden change of the leadership and the major alteration of how the guild function have brought deep tensions within the guild, some of the older merchants refused to submit to the new formation. Though they didn't part of the guild or tried to hurt its expansion, but they use every chance given trying to restrain the new leaders or even overthrow them entirely.. Their attempts haven't bear any fruit, and all are dealt with through many brutal and peaceful ways, one of these ways was giving the traditionalists have the very critical position of "The Chancellor" in the leadership ranks, though the old man who took the position have great respect for "Lucius Delaval" and his daughter Famke, so she wasn't losing so much weight to traditionalists after all.

There are a rumor about how the mother have her very own plans for the guild and she will enforce them gradually until she secure the guild loyalty to the chantry, but non had solid prove yet, so a lot of members consider it's a rumor forged by the rivals of the new successful leaders.

The organization
The guild core is Starkhaven, it has smaller branches in rest of free marches and Nevarra, and agents all over main cities of Thedas The guild leadership consist of 6 leaders, each one is responsible for certain division:

The one who is responsible for the guild treasure and all statements related to it. (Very skilled Dwarf who could save the guild a fortune of expenses by few calculations)
 * The Accountant

The one who represent the guild in front of the authorities and responsible for all the documents and official affairs. (A high influence Noble from the Aurosa Family).
 * The Representative

The One who is responsible of all negotiators of the guild, he train them and arrange who is sent where to conclude agreements or trade deals. (A traditionalist very wealthy smart merchant from the original group Lucius founded)
 * The Negotiator

The One who is responsible of the arbitration between merchants at any discord. (Other old and wise traditionalist of the original group)
 * The Chancellor

The one who is responsible for collecting all the information about the trade, goods, and prices over the other markets in different cities and countries through running "The agents" (A foreign merchant who have started to create these contacts himself before joining the guild)
 * The intelligence administrator

The Mother is supposed to be honorary administrator of the guild, being the daughter of the original founder of the guild, and a chantry mother makes her more a spiritual leader than real administrator, as her vote is considered equal to the other five leaders, beside her vote she has no other power over any certain division of the guild.. but she have much more influence through the respect of old traditionalists she carefully picked to put into leadership ranks and the loyalty of the new leaders who she recruited them herself. Each named leader has full control over his division and his decision is final at all day-to-day regulation.
 * The Mother

The leaders have monthly meeting to review all the work each of the divisions did and approve them, also discussing any new ideas/plans for the upcoming month. and voting for any important decision needed to be made.

The guild have a seasonal assembly at the end of each season in a kind of celebration, but also to discuss all the seasonal matters and let the members knows the achievements of the guild through last season, and to share the new Circular for the upcoming season.

The Seasonal circular that published after the seasonal meeting, it contain Advised stuff for the guild members, merchant is not bound to this circular literally, but the more merchants stick to it the more they get more influence and credibility in the guild. It contains stuff like:


 * What's the most needed goods in the city for the next season.
 * Which cities expected to have best prices to buy certain goods.
 * What's the most expected profitable trades for the next season.
 * Who're the best outside guild merchants who can cooperate and make partnership with.
 * Who're the untrustworthy people that guild shouldn't deal with (sometimes the list mention some nobles and that cause deep much tensions).
 * What's the safest trade routes and most dangerous ones.
 * Emergency meetings can be hold to face incidental matters, a vote is always used to take decisions in such meetings.

The guild treasure
Guild treasure consist mainly of the merchants own money that they give for the guild by these means: Membership seasonal fee. Leaders pays more fees than normal members.

A small cut of all sales made by members through the guild channels.

The guild business

 * Protecting guild members business and securing trade routes.
 * Offering professional negotiators to secure the best deals for the members.
 * Helping new traders to set foot on solid ground.
 * Manage the legal and business affairs of the merchants and represent them in front of the authorities.
 * Giving advices about business for all the merchants in the seasonal circular.
 * Sets the stability of the prices.
 * Giving loans for the merchants in need, and help broken merchants to recover.
 * Solving the conflicts between the merchants.

Agents
Those contacts who could do market research, check supply and demand, sometimes create them if there would be a need, provide accurate information about production, and prices. They are the strongest arm of the Guild, as information is power. They are based on most of Thedas Biggest cities. And it's rumored that few of them works for industrial espionage, but nothing confirmed. The group created by the mysterious merchant Mete Aslan and still managed by himself.

Membership

 * The guild consists of its 6 leaders and over 30 other merchants in Starkhaven, other 20 scattered around surrounding territories.
 * The small outposts in other cities varies from small ones (3-7 memebrs), to big ones (10-15 members).
 * The agents numbers and exact location is not a common knowledge in the guild, only certain people know about them.