v0.31:Economics

Crafts

Dwarves like to make crafts out of pretty much anything they can: wood, leather, glass, stone, metal and cloth are just a few things that can be turned into valuable crafts to be traded with friendly civilizations. In order of most to least valuable, the materials are:

Material

Rare Gems

Platinum

Precious Gems

Gold

Steel

Semi Precious Stones

Silver

Iron

Crystal Glass

Brass

Bronze

Clear Glass

Tallow

Pearlash

Potash

Obsidian

Some Ornamental Stones

Light/Dark Stone

Copper

Tin

Coal

Silk

Green Glass

Lye

Gray Stone

Cloth

Bone

Shell

Leather

Tallow

Selling

To sell goods (and to buy) you will need a Trade Depot. When a friendly civilisation comes along, they will want to trade at your depot.
By pressing "shift-D" you can see whether the traders can reach your depot. At the depot, use "b" to toggle if the Broker should be the only one allowed to trade.
Press "g" to bring up a window much like the stocks page. Press "enter" to toggle goods to trade. "s" allows you to then type in a word to find a specific good. Remember that to trading Bins often means that the items inside of them will be traded as well. eg "Gem Bin" will trade with the gems inside of it.

Once the goods are all at the depot and the merchants have unpacked, you can then press "t" to trade. Use enter to mark goods for trade, and "t" to trade. Watch to make sure the merchant is getting too good a deal, and make sure he has the room to take all the goods you are offering. Use "o" to offer goods and appease the merchants if you have started to offend them.
Remember if your leader has placed a trade ban on a good, not to trade it or you can offend and insult your leader!
That's pretty much it for trading. Merchants >> Depot >> Select Goods >> Trade!