23a:Trade good

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Trade good is a term frequently used to refer to items that are lightweight and only useful for trading until after the dwarven economy begins, when they will become wanted trinkets among some dwarves. They include crafts, goblets, instruments, toys, large gems, and totems, some of which have several sub-types. Once produced, all of the various types and sub-types of trade goods are identical except for their weight; rings and earrings are the lightest with a base weight of 1, but the heavier trade goods with a base weight of 10 are still much lighter than items such as furniture or most armor. All types of trade goods are stored in finished goods stockpiles.

There is no way to issue a job order for a specific subtype of a good with multiple subtypes. If you have a mandate to make mini-forges, the best you can do is to order toys and hope for the best.

Some types of trade goods can be produced in multiples. It is possible to get up to three crafts from a single resource. The chance of multiples is increased with more experience in the craftsdwarf skill. Mugs will always be made in threes, so they are more productive in terms of value than other trade goods.

Types of trade goods

Crafts

Crafts include idols, rings, earrings, amulets, bracelets, scepters, and crowns. In Adventurer mode, some types of crafts (such as earrings) can be worn, but are still better used as deadly projectiles.

Goblets

Goblets have no subtypes, but have different names depending on the material from which they are made: rock goblets are called mugs, and wooden goblets are called cups.

Instruments

Instruments include drums, flutes, harps, trumpets, and piccolos.

Toys

Toys include mini-forges, toy hammers, toy axes, toy boats, and puzzleboxes.

Totems

Totems have no subtypes. They are made from skulls.

Large gems

Large gems have no subtypes. It is not possible to issue a job order for large gems; instead, cutting any gem or raw glass has a chance to produce a large gem (or a random type of craft) instead of ordinary cut gems.

Materials

Most materials can be used to make trade goods. On occasion, a dwarf in a strange mood will make a trade good out of a material not normally suited for it (e. g., a cloth instrument)^[Verify].

Material	Labor	Workshop	Crafts	Goblets	Instruments	Toys	Large Gems
Stone	Craftsworking	Craftsdwarf's workshop	Y	Y	Y	Y	N
Wood	Craftsworking	Craftsdwarf's workshop	Y	Y	Y	Y	N
Leather	Leatherworking	Craftsdwarf's workshop	Y	N	N	N	N
Cloth	Clothes making	Craftsdwarf's workshop	Y	N	N	N	N
Bone1	Craftsworking	Craftsdwarf's workshop	Y	N	N	N	N
Shell	Craftsworking	Craftsdwarf's workshop	Y	N	N	N	N
Metal	Metalsmithing	Metalsmith's forge or Magma forge	Y	Y	Y	Y	N
Glass	Glassmaking	Glass furnace or Magma glass furnace2	Y2	Y	Y	Y	Y2
Gems	Jeweling	Jeweler's workshop	Y2	N	N	N	Y2

¹ Skull totems, like bone crafts, are also made by a bone carver at a craftsdwarf's workshop.

² See Large gems above. Large glass gems are cut at a jeweler's workshop, not a glass furnace.

Stonecrafting is a timeconsuming but easy to set up way to make export goods early, as your stone crafter will have access to tons of stone in a typical fortress. Stone goods are not that valuable and quite heavy, but many of these can be made and they will be accepted by any traders. A legendary stone crafter with a stockpile of high value stone or ore can make some very valuable crafts.

Making crafts from bone or shell is easy to set up if you have any dwarves hunt or fish, but it is easy for production to outstrip supply with legendary bonecrafters. Additionally, bones and shell have potentially more important uses, such as producing bone ammo and crossbows, or shell armor. Skulls, however, have no uses other than totems, so making totems has essentially no drawback.

Cloth and leather crafts tend to be very light, and can be more valuable than stone crafts, but it takes more effort to produce cloth and leather than it does raw stone. Cloth and leather can also be used to make clothing, which is as lightweight as most trade goods and, in some cases, is automatically produced in pairs.

Wooden trade goods have low value, the same value as common, non-economic and non-obsidian stone, and cannot be traded to elves. Unless you have a highly skilled wood crafter and a surplus of wood, making these is not generally useful.

Metal goods can be highly profitable, particularly those made from metals not suitable for making weapons and armor; however, you may prefer to save metal for furniture instead, particularly to satisfy demands from nobles.

Green glass goods are as valuable as those made from flux stone, and clear glass goods are significantly more valuable. However, glass goods are difficult to produce in large quantities due to the requirement of having to gather sand first; clear glass also requires pearlash (putting a strain on your wood supplies) and is equal in value to bronze, and crystal glass production is further limited by what few rough rock crystals you are able to locate and successfully mine out, though said goods are equal in value to those made of iron or silver.

Gem crafts and large gems can be very valuable depending on the type of gem, but the most valuable gems are fairly rare and it is impossible to control whether or not a craft is produced.