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Southern Mercantile Company

Southern Mercantile Company

Owned by Daniel Bove
Sept 07, 2017

Overview

A powerful, financial group based in the Empire that effectively controls the distribution of goods, tariffs, tax on industry, and much of the economic policy associated with the occupation of The Riding.

Members of the Company are recognizable by the Red cloaks warn by officials.

Company employees typically include:

  • Tax collectors
  • Caravan/Delivery overseers
  • Caravan guard captains and guards
  • Tax collector guards.

Activities in the Riding

Governance

Management of the Riding is handled by the Chancellor of the Riding Exchequer stationed in the Greenmouth.  The Riding is divided into individual administrative districts, typically centered around the cities of the Riding.  Each district is managed by a Chancellor. The chancellor typically has a Polonian staff of a few dozen clerks, underwriters, tax collectors, caravan overseers and security forces available to him.  Lower level security jobs are typically handled by Riding folk, many of whom are shunned by the native population for working for the occupiers.

Tax Collection

Most industries in the Riding are taxed by the Company.  Primary taxes include:

  • Transportation of goods, typically requiring a tax note in order to move them along the roads, on the river via barge, and into or out of cities.
  • Selling of goods.  Local proprietors are required to pay their yearly tax note, although licensed proprietors within cities typically pay their taxes to the city governor instead.
  • Manufacture of goods.  Local craftsman are required to pay their yearly tax note, although licensed proprietors within cities typically pay their taxes to the city governor instead.

Local offices of the the Company typically set tax rates, although they are provided direction by the Company Board.  Some local offices and some officials are more rapacious than others.  Fine points of law that differentiate between taxes owed to the city governors versus those owed to the Company often result in common folk being forced to pay both.

Known Collectors and Offices

Caravan/Delivery Overseers

The Company itself employs caravans and teams to transport goods through the riding.  While the majority of the trafficking of grains and other low-cost, high volume items is done by river barge by the local teams, high value goods are typically transferred via caravans under the direct supervisor of Company Overseers.  

Company Overseers avoid the use of river barges because of difficulties of controlling the environment.  A lack of experience as river pilots, as navigators, and difficulties in controlling tactical scenarios including fleeing from raiders or using barges large enough to support significant guard presence all contribute to the lack of river barge usage.

For missions of lower importance, caravan guard companies typically include a Caravan Master, a Polonian Caravan Guard Captain and are rounded out by Riding folk.

Known Caravan Personnel