Author: Leonardo Savatoro
Translator: Marcelbuter
Right now it seems hard to keep new traders staying in our Federation. The new inhabitants run into a lot of problems, such as the fact that the find it hard to understand the trade and when they do understand it, some see that it is quite tough to sell their products. This could be because there is little trade in the cities that they are in, or that they put themselves out of business by awkward pricing strategies. In this article I will focus mostly on the first bit.
It is a problem which has been here for many trading periods. Ways to fix this problem are well known, and they range from multiple budget rounds for Mayors and the tourist system. Another problem is that there are cities which are really too small to have right of existence.
Take Tripolire for example, that this trading period acts as a suburb of Monapoli. Traders from Monapoli have massively opened shops in Tripolire, but what happens to the trader from Tripolire? Which traders you mean, because there isn’t even one big trader in Tripolire this trading period. The reason is evident, the lack of trade.
So what is the added value of a city such as Tripolire? Does it only serve as added revenue for traders from Monapoli? Does this city really produce new traders? It seems that it doesn’t. Why would a trader settle in a city where there is not even enough trade to make a living? This trader leaves the Federation and you never see them again.
The new trader also doesn’t have the idea that he has moved to a place without trade, he actually thinks he moves into a busy city. This way the trader is stimulated to do his best. The disappointment then is all the greater.
This is not only a problem in Tripolire, other cities also have trouble with this situation. A good solution would be to remove cities that are too small of their city rights and stop putting energy into small cities. The traders from smaller cities could move to larger cities and benefit from better trade.
Rationally this would be the best decision that can be taken, but the Federals don’t have the guts to take this decision, what they are afraid of is unsure, probably the emotional attachment of people to their cities. I would like to ask the Federals to give a reaction to this article and bring some arguments for keeping all of the cities.