Quote: “Mercantile income is the total of gp earned from selling goods and transporting cargo and passengers, less the cost of goods sold, wages,rations, tolls, custom duties, moorage and stabling, and labor fees… If monthly income exceeds the character’s income threshold, he earns XP equal to the difference per month of the expedition”
Question: It seems like these rules are intended to only apply to goods bought for the sole purpose of selling, but the strict wording suggests that all goods found contribute to this. Does this mean that players can collect XP twice from noncoin loot? (Level 1 Player finds a log of rare wood worth 200 gold in the wilderness, brings it to town, collects 200 xp for stepping across the border with treasure, then sells it for 200 gp, and the end of the month collects 175 xp for selling goods?)
I could see this being a loophole, but I could also see it as intended behavior, since it encourages players to collect a wider variety of loot, and it makes gems even more valuable than they already are.
If you get the loot from the wilderness or a dungeon, it can hardly be considered “mercantile income”. Mercantile income and loot are different.
While this does appear to be the intent of the mercantile income section (Since its language strongly suggests that this is in relation to arbitrage trading) I can’t find anything that actually shows that the rules distinguish between selling the bear pelts you got from the market and selling the bear pelts you got from bears- You’re selling goods on the market either way.
I think it’s pretty clear that the intent is to measure profit and to provide XP for mercantile profit, just like adventuring provides XP for loot profit. (The language basically lists revenue minus expenses, which is how we calculate profit.) So if the PCs get loot, and bring it back to civilization, I would award the XP for getting it back, and then treat that amount as the cost basis for it when it’s sold. Under some circumstances, it might be easier to just merge the two steps and not award XP until the items are sold, and then award XP for the whole sales price–but that only works if it’s either sold at or below the market price when it’s first “brought back” or if other mercantile income is accounting for the XP threshold; alternately, I think it’s fine to say that trade goods are only really income when sold (and either apply the XP threshold or not depending on your judgment about how the PCs are behaving–are they merchants grabbing some quick trade goods on the sly, or are they adventurers who are selling loot?). But however you handle it, it’s clearly contrary to the intent of the rules (and just silly) to provide double-xp for the same income. If you give the XP for getting the bear skins, you should treat that value as cost for mercantile income. (And in general, when the intent of the rules is clear, and produces reasonable results, trying to insist on finding the letter of the law that prevents violations of that intent is probably the wrong approach to rules interpretation. Instead, you’re probably better off just saying, “this is clearly supposed to do X, so I’m going to make it do X.”)
Did the players sell the goods using the mercantile rules, or did they just sell them for flat (treasure) value?
If they want through the trouble of organizing the goods into lots; paying a fee for market entry; finding a mercantile buyer; and negotiating a price based on prevailing market conditions; then it's mercantile revenue.
On the other hand, if they just said "I sell the 500gp diamond for 500gp" then it's not. In the latter case you can assume that an agent, friend, or merchant handled it, and took the profits that might have been available through proper trading for himself.
On the other hand, if they just said "I sell the 500gp diamond for 500gp" then it's not. In the latter case you can assume that an agent, friend, or merchant handled it, and took the profits that might have been available through proper trading for himself.
So, next time I’ve got a speculative mercantile cargo and find myself in a market where there’s no demand, I can have an “agent, friend, or merchant” sell it for me and avoid taking as much of a loss?
On a slight tangent, can 500gp diamonds typically be sold for 500gp? I guess I’m too spoiled by B2 where you expect to get significantly less than the face value of the gem.