Port Interface/Merchant District

The merchant district is where you carry out commercial transactions while you are in port. This is where you buy and sell goods, personal items (equipment), and use the banks.

The four buttons at the top of the merchant district view allow you to switch between trade goods, personal items, the bank, and merchant jobs.

Trade Goods

Buying and especially selling of trade goods is one of the main sources of revenue in "Pirates and Traders". Prices of goods vary and fluctuate over time, so there are profits to be made by the enterprising trader. Trade goods are displayed as follows.

Trade Good Information

Capacity (1)

This tells you how much capacity you have used of your ship's cargo space, and how much capacity it has in total.

Trade Goods List (2)

This is a scrollable list of all the trade goods available in this port.

Quantity (3)

This is indicates the quantity of the specified trade good that you have in your cargo holds.

Name and Availability (4)

This is the name of the trade good. The number in parenthesis is the number of units available at the port.

Description (5)

This is a brief description of the trade good containing useful information about it.

Price (6)

This is the price of the trade good. The top number indicates the price for you to buy one unit of the good; the number below is the amount of doubloons you receive for each unit sold.

Buttons (7)

These two buttons allow you to buy and sell the trade good. These buttons will be disabled if you do not have money to buy or units of the trade good to sell.

If you want to buy or sell all of the goods you have in the hold, you can press the relevant button and hold it down (i.e., long press). This will buy or sell all of the goods of that type you have available, subject to money and capacity limitations.

The Trade Goods

The following trade goods exist in "Pirates and Traders":

• Food: This represents food stuffs of various kinds. You crew consumes Food, so you will always want some on board. Food is cheapest in rich ports and most expensive in poor ports.
• Sugar: This represents sugar and molasses; vital for the production of rum. Sugar is cheapest in poor ports and most expensive in rich ports.
• Spices: This represents the various spices of the new world, including Cocoa - the food of the gods. Production of Spices is highest in prosperous ports.
• Lumber: Wood and lumber is required not just for construction but also ships. The best production of Lumber is in average ports.
• Cotton: Cotton plantations were common across the Carribean. It is primarily produced in average ports in the game.
• Rum: The drink of the Pirate. Production of Rum is highest in prosperous ports.
• Paper: Paper was an important industrial product from Lumber. Wealthy ports produce most Paper in the game.
• Clothing: The pirates of the period were highly fashion-conscious, and Clothing was valued plunder. Wealthy ports produce the most Clothing.
• Weapons: Weapons are much sought after due to the continuous warfare. Rich ports produce the most Weapons. Weapons are, however, considered contraband in Spanish and British territory.
• Gems: Precious Gems are the most expensive trading good in the game. For this reason, the State holds a monopoly on its trade and it is considered contraband in Spanish, French, and Dutch territories. The highest production of gems occurs in poor ports.

The five port levels are poor (1), average (2), prosperous (3), wealthy (4), and rich (5).

Contraband

Your ship will alwyas be searched when entering a port. If you are carrying contraband, this search will play out as a short story. During this story, the game will test your smuggling ability (based on the Cunning skill). If you fail this test, you will be forced to make a run for it, or try to convince the customs officials to let you through. If you fail at that action, the customs officials will arrest you and confiscate all of your goods.

Personal Items

This allows you to purchase personal items, using your personal wealth, for your inventory.

Banks

This view represents the options of the financial district when you are in a port. This view primarily has three functions; to allow the player to distribute the accumulated plunder of the ship, to allow the player to carry out financial transactions such as loaning money in the bank, and to allow the player the possibility of a voluntary retirement.

Finance

Sometimes, you will find that your ventures require a little seed capital to get started. If this is the case, you can chose to transfer some of your private wealth to your ship.

Any doubloons transferred are lost to your personal treasury.

Loan

If you have a sufficiently good financial standing you can take out a loan with the bank. The maximum loan available to you depends on the value of your ship, but the Banks will usually be willing to offer you a loan equivalent to half the value of your ship.

A loan accumulates interest on the first of each month at an interest rate of 3-6% depending on your bargaining skill. Your debt will continue to increase until the loan is paid off. Be careful when taking loans - the debt can accumulate rapidly.

If you end a game with unpaid loans, these will be deducted from your final score.

Repay

Loans can be repaid at any time and in any amount.

Jobs

This option allows you to look for jobs; usually missions requiring you to transport a cargo from one place to another.