Trade Goods of the Inner Sea

[Gnoll Bard]

So, a little while ago there was a thread in which people were discussing what kind of goods are widely traded in the Inner Sea Region, and what the major imports and exports of each nation were. I've been doing a little research and a lot of conjecture...ing about this since then, and I've put together sort of a rough draft listing trade goods by nation, region, or settlement. I'd love to hear people's comments/suggestions; you should be able to view the file here.

For those of you who are interested, here are some quick notes on how I put together the list:

What countries are included and why?:

For practical reasons I only included countries located along the major trade routes mentioned in the Inner Sea World Guide, namely the North Track, the Obari Crossing, the Path of Aganhei (eastern and western routes), the Sellen Passage, the South Track, and the Varisian Run. Other trade routes certainly exist, and many are highly profitable (like the overland route between Cheliax and Druma), but I figure that focusing on the most important routes would give a decent overall picture of trade in the region as a whole.

What goods are included and why?:

A lot of this information is basses on more or less educated guesses, particularly the import lists and the exports listed for the more obscure countries on the list. I did my best to use common sense, and I avoided including goods that I couldn't find mentioned in print or on the wiki. It seems probable (at least to me) that countries like Cheliax and Taldor export a lot of cotton cloth, but there hasn't been a lot of discussion (that I've seen) about textiles in the Inner Sea Region, so I left them off.

What are the demand lists based on?:

In general, I assumed that countries would demand more or less every type of good that they don't themselves supply unless there was a good reason to believe that there wasn't a demand for it. For instance, some entities on the list (particularly the "colonial" settlements in Garund) don't seem to have a lot of local manufacturing, so I assumed that they wouldn't be significant importers of raw materials like lumber or base metals. In countries that don't have much of a wealthy upper class (Galt, the Kingdoms of the Mammoth Lords), I assumed they wouldn't demand much in the way of luxury goods, though things like precious metals and consumable "vices" (alcohol, drugs, coffee, etc) are probably in demand just about everywhere.

Kyonin is sort of a special case, since the elves don't seem all that interested in human luxuries or manufactured goods. Their imports are therefore restricted to raw materials they can use in their own crafts.

How are the goods classified?:

I've tried to group goods into fairly broad categories, with the exception of certain things that get mentioned a lot in print (like olive oil), or which are particularly unique or valuable (silk, skymetals, tobacco, etc).

Some Caveats:

If a country isn't listed as supplying a particular resource, or even if it is listed as demanding that resource, it doesn't necessarily mean that they can't produce the resource locally. Goods like alcohol, magic, and manufactured goods can be produced just about anywhere on the local scale. The list is meant to reflect that some nations are known for producing certain goods, and the merchants and aristocrats of other nations will go out of their way to import, say, Chelaxian wine or fine crafts from Absalom.

Likewise, even if a country is a net supplier of a good, it may import that good to some degree as well. Different parts of a large country won't have equal access to that country's resources, so miners living in the mountainous north of Cheliax might eat food mostly brought over the border from Nidal, for instance. Furthermore, people (or at least people with money) are always interested in the exotic, so glassware from Qadira might demand a high price in Magnimar even though there's a glassworks just up the road in Sandpoint.

Magic:

On the list, "magic" refers not only to magical items, but also to books and other products of magical scholarship, as well as goods created by spells, like everburning torches. In general, the only countries I've listed as suppliers of magic are those particularly known for being "magical", or that are home to particularly noteworthy centers of magical learning.

Manufactured Goods:

"Manufactured Goods" can be anything from weapons and tool to artwork and fashionable clothing, depending on the country. Countries listed as demanding manufactured goods don't have much local manufacturing at all, so they import just about everything that an untrained commoner couldn't make themselves.

Plunder:

"Plunder" refers to any number of different goods seized by force. I haven't listed any country as specifically demanding plunder, since it's such a diverse category, but I think it's still useful to include it on the list since looting and pillaging is such an important part of the economy in certain countries.

Whale:

"Whale" refers to both whale oil and ambergris.

Lake Encarthian Region:

The entry for the "Lake Encarthian Region" refers to all the nations that have ports on Lake Encarthian and are thereby connected to the Sellen Passage route.