1. Notes

Trade in the Thousand Isles

Economics

Trade is extremely important to all major cities and states in the The Thousand Isles. Sitting astride the seasonal east/west Tradewinds allows the Islanders to enjoy a privileged position connecting the trade of two continents (Valtentis and Mbo) in addition to allowing them to easily move their own local goods to those markets. Trade has allowed some elements of society to become extremely wealthy. It is said in Haven Towne that there is no good produced anywhere in the world that cannot be had for a price. 

All is not perfect however. The trade routes to the Northwest have been blocked by the giants of Gianthome for many years and other seas beyond are rumored to have become even more hostile. Since the Goliath’s learned how to build longships two centuries ago, the Northern Reach has become increasingly lawless, home to copious pirates that are growing in boldness. Since all easterly trade must route through the south and the lands of the Mbo, the merchants of the Isles chafe under foreign rules and tariffs. 

Trade to the south is brisk but tightly controlled and ruthlessly taxed. All foreign traders to Mbo are channeled through a single port (Bawaaba Mbo.) at the mouth of mighty Dorba River river and foreign ships are denied entry to any other city in the continent, or sea routes to access to the western seas. As a result Bawaaba Mbo. has grown to be the other great trade center of the region, rivaling Haven, and hosting traders from even further west, from fabled lands such as Bilad al-Sham, Mashriq and Jambu Dwipa. One of the dearest dreams of the merchants of the Thousand Isles is to reopen alternate routes to the west, bypassing Mbo and trading with those lands directly

Trade in the Northern Reaches

The Northern Reach

As aim of the aftermaths of the The Pirate Crusade, The Northern Reach was granted to three of the The Merchant Houses of Haven.

These house were

Of the three only House Vetrini was always the most active and is the only one of the three still aggressively exercising it’s monopoly powers through its hold on Puerto Lejos and the middle reach.

This charter required that any trade from or to ports in the The Inner Archipelago must be carried on ships of one of those three houses, effectively barring the native ships of the reach from trade with the inner islands. 

In an odd twist the town of Skull River Bay was classified as an archipelago port and was not under this restriction 

The net effect of this loophole has been that, while ships carrying trade goods from other ports in the reach to and from Skull River Bay are required to be one of the chartered merchant houses, once goods reach that town, they can be freely imported into other archipelago ports. This has turned Skull River Bay into a haven for smugglers and pirates.