by Potjeh » Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:16 pm
Hehe, I feel like such a Jew for running a moneychanger.
Anyway, I was thinking about the buyer stalls myself, and I realized they're not needed if everyone just builds a shop. You can get the coins at your own shop and use them at the other shops. Supply of coin might be a bit low ATM, but Brodgar is pumping coins into the economy, and I myself will probably mint all the copper I get my hands on. When we get enough coins in the economy, the shop prices will rise to realistic levels (currently stuff is too cheap because not many people have coins), so they'll be a decent way to acquire metal.
But the real beauty is in just having the same money keep changing hands forever. As it changes hands, misc byproducts will find their way to the people that need them, thus increasing everyone's productivity and making everyone richer. For example, I went hunting several times just to get intestines for rennet. Getting into Mordor and finding a deer or a bear (boar intestines suck) takes a lot of time (which could be used to make more cheese), and I end up with a ton of products I don't really need. With a developed market I can just buy the intestines from a dedicated hunter, who now probably throws that stuff away.
Another nice thing that comes with a developed market is that it makes recovery from theft easier. Coins are more inventory efficient than vast majority of items (seriously, name one thing that's worth more than 100 gold coins and takes just one slot), so you can more easily keep a hidden stash / altvault. Once you get hit by a thief, you just take the coins from the stash, go to the marketplace, and buy replacements for all the critical items you lost.

Bottleneck