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
- House Vetrini
- House O'Brian
- Antillean Northern Reach Trading Company (now defunct)
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.