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40d:Trading
Trading in Dwarf Fortress first occurs in the first autumn of building your fort, with the arrival of the dwarven caravan. Trading is a good way to acquire resources not neccesarily available in the local area. It also makes it possible to embark with fewer items, e.g. food, wood and an anvil/metal bars can be traded for local goods.
Trade depot
In order to trade, a trade depot must exist and be accessible. All following actions are accessed there via the q-menu.
Hauling goods
When a caravan arrives, it is time to move local goods ready for trade. Selecting items in the categorized view will mark them [PENDING] and they will be moved to the depot by a dwarf with the appropriate hauling skill. When ready for trade, an item is marked [TRADE]. The depot can be emptied in the same manner.
Requesting a trader
When a trader is needed at the depot and only the broker may trade, if not busy, he or she will come to the depot and wait for trading to begin. It is advised to deactivate all labors from the broker during trading. However, eating drinking and sleeping are always at a higher priority than trading.
Trading
In the trading view, merchants' goods are displayed on the left and player's on the right. Items from each side are selected for trade with enter and then traded with t.
There are two factors to concider in making a balanced trade: weight and item value. Caravans have weight limits and the allowed additional weight is shown in the bottom right corner. The merchants must also profit from the deal. The amount of profit depends on the broker skill of the trader. It is strongly advised to use an allocated broker to do the transaction with the merchants. Having one person being a broker means that only he gains experience in social skills from successfull trades, thus being able to negotiate more favorable deals in the future.
Caravans
The merchant races are dwarves, humans and elves, each of which send a caravan once a year in normal circumstances. Dwarves and humans also send a liaison with whom the local broker has a meeting. Import and export requests are made, adjusting the prices for the next year. Desired items become more valuable.
Dwarves
Dwarves arrive every year in the fall, typically bringing food, booze, leather and miscellaneous supplies. They are the only caravan that can bring steel in any form, either as equipment, crafts or unworked metal bars. Unlike other races, the dwarven civilization will never attack even if their traders don't make it home.
Humans
The first human caravan will arrive in the summer of your second year, provided a human civilization has access to your site. The caravan will have wagons, which are slow and wide but carry lots of goods. The width causes high demands for depot accessibility. There must be a path at least three tiles wide from the edge of the map where humans enter. If the caravan must take a very long path to reach the depot, this is reduced from the time to trade. If the time is up while they are still moving, they will turn back and leave.
Humans may also send a Representative, and having more skilled trading nobles will upgrade him to a Merchant Baron or Merchant Prince, who have larger caravans. The Representative will set up Trade agreements with your trading noble, which lets you order the goods you want the next caravan to bring. Humans value weapons, and will usually negotiate to pay more for them in their trade agreements.
Elves
Elves send small caravans in spring, loaded with cloth, rope, various plants, and wooden items. The may also bring some tame animals. They are very picky about what they will accept in return.
Elven traders do not like to be offered any dead animal or tree byproducts. Forbidden items includev0.23.130.23a:
- Bone, shell, leather, or chitin items
- Wooden items, and items derived from wood, such as charcoal and pearlash
- Clear and crystal glass (because pearlash is used in their creation)
- Items decorated with any of the above materials
- Obsidian shortswords (since they have wooden handles)
- Soap
- Cheese
- Any item they normally would accept that has blood on it, for instance from a slain enemy.
Metal items are acceptable, even when charcoal is used in their production. Items made from silk are acceptable, as are all non-wooden plant-derived products. You can also transport your goods to the trade depot in a wooden bin, as long as you do not try to sell the bin. Living animals are acceptable, as long as the cage or trap is not made of wood.
Although tower-caps are giant mushrooms, they are considered trees by the elves.