Whats your business?!?!

[Ovault]

One of my charecters has a Trading company/business and has mostly offers healing foods and other surplus and also does handywork (helping on projects so on & so forth). What business does you charecter run?

[wichita]

One character runs a repair shop, another has become a wandering trader in one of the more desolate areas of the world. Another character is part of a potential clothing business that is going nowhere quickly. His last business idea fizzled out, so we will see how long it takes for this one to do the same.

[El_Skwidd]

business...

one of my chars runs a small-time mining company, one is a travelling trader, one is working on opening a hotel. those are the only ones with any hope for profit.

i also have a pirate character, if that counts

[Ovault]

One character runs a repair shop, another has become a wandering trader in one of the more desolate areas of the world. Another character is part of a potential clothing business that is going nowhere quickly. His last business idea fizzled out, so we will see how long it takes for this one to do the same.

My main charecter is a potatoe farmer my other one is a traveling trader and my other ones are just like... well.. yea haha, travelers

[rklenseth]

Well, my character James Whitmore built both a successful metalworking business and clothing business up until he died in Seatown Forest. I'm not sure what happened to the businesses after he died.

[west]

They went to someone who could tell the difference between Kiefer Surtherland and...well, just about anyone else?

Whitmore saw Kiefer everywhere, except where he actually was.

[SekoETC]

One of my characters owns a hemp processing shop. But since everyone who is somebody in that city already has hemp clothes and newspawns either die or go elsewhere, there ain't much of a market. So now planning to go on a sales trip. The preparations just taking a long while. And I've had a few other tailors too. But my characters don't have much entrepreneur spirit, they either work for others or for the good of a community in communistic fashion.

[Antichrist_Online]

I have a jack of all trades who runs a successful but overly stolen from company, a fletcher/weaponsmith who is becoming famous in his town, a trader in rare goods and a competant tailor.

[Sunni Daez]

Ehhh, being in the clothier bussiness is a tough one!!!! I had one who done nothing but collect food to feed anyone who was hungry, but got no respect for it.

[Pie]

I am making a trading post to trade with the one in kirrin norefeilds to the new lands. Were going to make wepons and sheilds for the travelors.

[The Sociologist]

Of my 15 characters:

One administers a wealthy commune; this is by far the most successful concept I've arrived at to date. This commune is the entire town thanks to control of the food supply.

One is partner in an iron-manufacturing concern that has just suddenly gained a steelmaking capability (though it does little or no trading); in truth they are making iron for their own benefit, maybe bikes some day. By the way, it started out as a clothing company but there is no future in that alone.

One is attempting to set up an iron and steelmaking capability in a town in a backward and poorly designed region, which town he so far controls in partnership with one other. At least he managed to buy a bike...largely with leather and bread.

One works for a large capitalistic tool and clothing company but is undergoing a crisis of belief in the whole point of trading anything to anyone;

One is a member of a somewhat moribund communalist family that seems to spend most of its time mourning the dead. It has the capability to make whatever it wants, but seldom wants anything.

One is a travelling trader gradually accumulating a stock of gold, silver, cloth, really good clothing, etc; she carries everything around on her back ("I am what I wear").

One owns a lakebound longboat and has even visited towns around the lake to trade, but the concept seems to be unknown thereabouts. He did eventually find someone who grasped the concept but she was dragged off to jail halfway through the process for no good reason.

One works for an order of knights...for no pay? Another works for a town...for no pay? I have my doubts about these two, but then they've become so sleepy they lack the initiative to try anything else. Yet another just rides around with her troubadour boyfriend on a bike. The rest gather resources for themselves and wander around the place, most being pretty sleepy and uncommunicative (and two don't have names).

The problem is that the nature of the Cantrian economy is unbalanced. Once one has made one's own iron and steel, there is little point in trading it for anything else. And were one to trade, there is no possibility of any currency other than iron--coins you can forget about. That is why the KDS region can never develop, since trading free iron is supposedly prohibited there. Regarding other materials, there is little market for food since even the forest concerns, if they have any initiative, will by now have accumulated adequate stockpiles. There is little market for healing foods in a world with hardly any pirate or animal attacks. There is still a market for clothing materials here and there but even that is becoming sated in many places.

I have pointed out over and over again what the problems are and made suggestions as to how to fix things. In the current circumstances, capitalism is a joke. You can roleplay being a capitalist, but is this not to some degree for ooc reasons then? What does seem to work is very small partnerships who develop purely for their own benefit and often largely ignore outside trading, or else communalist institutions even up to the level of entire town governments.

[Lumin]

I agree, running any kind of remotely successful business is next to impossible because no one actually needs anything. (Except iron, but as you said, once a char has that there's not much else to aim for.)

But once trading is no longer a sensible option, maybe it's time for those iron-producing towns to branch out and expand in other directions? Literally, I mean. The natural evolution of desire for wealth is desire for power, and once you own one town don't the neighboring ones start to look awfully tempting?

[nitefyre]

I'd like to think Thomas Hobbes helped spearhead the age of Oceanic Trade, as he, amongst other occupations, is a merchant. That is my most direct experience in Cantr economy. My other characters tend to be organization or town focused, and none of the focuses of these towns are solely on trade, but rather would trade when helping to benefit their town in a certain resource, etc.

[The Industriallist]

I've got one character who runs a wood carving shop, to no great success (restricted aims, not taking on as many clueless peopns as can be found, etc...)

Another attempted to run a trading service, but while it's technically still open he's done no business in many years.

I have a seafaring trader on and abour Nonirowk, though he's hampered as traders usually are by people who would rather plan a 10 year resource collection trip than trade anything...or who have the fantasy that traders are in business primarily for the good of their customers.

Another would have a world-class organization, but can't seem to recruit any workers, whatever he does. Not really a business as things stand, though it could be someday.



I would contest that there are very good reasons to trade metal for lesser goods. Basically, many characters who are willing and able to work are not really capable of long missions to obtain resources. On the other hand, there are a fair number of characters who travel often from place to place, collecting resources and hoping for profit. If the groups that can get productive smelting out of the more sluggish types were to trade limited amounts of metal for needed ingredients, they wouldn't have to constantly dispatch their finest employees on mining trips.

[Ovault]

hmm.. okay thanks guys ^ ^ ; not a whole lot of BIG businesses but okay