Sanctuary Trade

Sanctuary is famed for slavery, but this forms a comparatively small proportion of their trade.

First and foremost, Sanctuary imports most of its food from Ranke proper, or from Aladar and Artsdorff. There is insufficient population in the peninsula to support a town of Ranke's size given the poor soil and ruinous policies of the local rulers.

Second, Sanctuary is the traditional gateway for trade into Ranke for everyone except its neighbours of Carzala and Mordeaux. Ranke is a relatively wealthy and sophisticated country. A large volume of goods travel through the Sanctuary docks with some skimming of the cream as bulk goods are off-loaded from sea-going ships and loaded onto barges

Third, Sanctuary is the first trade port accessible by southern traders. Rare and unusual goods from the Lunar Empire, the Five Sisters, Arabie, Azuria, Bretannia, Raniterre and the Far East are often channelled through Sanctuary. Seagate is fractionally closer but has far greater risks. Also, a number of the trade goods are illegal in other ports. Opium, krrf, hashish, black lotus and other addictive or harmful substances are bought and sold without any of those cultural misunderstandings that foreign ship captains wish to avoid. This means that most spices are available in Sanctuary at far better prices than elsewhere, although "Sanctuary spice" may turn out to be not be quite what you were expecting when shopping in back alleys of other cities.

Last, the slave trade. While slavery is hypothetically illegal in most of the baronies, bondsmen, indentured service, serfdom, impressment and conscription are all legal. Once a ruler has access to this source of free labour, they occasionally trade it with others. This accomodates for ebbs and flows in their workload. An efficient labour policy allows the rapid redistribution of these pre-committed resources to optimise their usefulness at all times.

As such, a secondary labour market has been established in Sanctuary. Also, unwanted rivals can be disposed of discreetly there. Domesticated specialists (usually mages, bookkeepers, entertainers and whores) can be obtained in the Sanctuary markets along with exotics from other countries and occasionally other worlds. More information can be found in A Beginner's Guide to the Slave Trade.