Bartering with food

[Innovan]

Wow, barter economys are hard. Your peasants will carry as money the only the farmed foods:

Wheat bread
Barley bread
Lettuce
and Onions
in different mixes, sometimes even all four at once.

Two icons max may be shown:
Bread is either shown dark brown (barley only) or white (wheat only or wheat and barley both)
Vegetable is either an Onion (onion only) or lettuce (lettuce only or mixture of onions and lettuce both).

32 units is the max of each type of farmed food that can carried out by one person. They seem to only buy 1 of each type of good per shopping trip, but can buy multiple different goods in 1 trip. Servants allow carrying more food out so you can return with more goods bought. Servants also will carry the money for you, so 2 servants doubles the amount of cash takes buying --and allows buying luxury goods that cost more than 32 food.

I've been watching people buy common goods. Some observed transactions

1 Wheat 1 lettuce for a mat
2 Barley 2 lettuce for a basket
1 Wheat 1 Barley for a pottery
2 Barley for a linen

Haven't noticed if nobles pay more for goods than laborers do.

[imhotep3147]

Is the fact that a basket (common good) costs more than pottery or linen (other common goods) because there are two types of baskets available? like are reed baskets more expensive than rush baskets or vice versa?
**my line of thinking: 1 wheat=1 barley=1 lettuce=1 onion**

Same question for luxury goods that can be made out of different materials.

Good job BTW. Thanks to you and all the others who take the time to compile such helpful info. :D

[Enigmatic_Sphinx]

I wonder whether your assignment of equal values for each food type is correct Imho?

I seem to recall something about taxation, and if you wanted to increase your tax income to assign nobles to produce wheat only. I'll poke around for that reference...and get back to this thread...

[imhotep3147]

I think that's because farmland produces more wheat per harvest than the other types of farm foods. Hate to keep using Pharaoh as reference but for those who remember wheatfield yields versus something like lettucefield yields you'll recall that wheat always gave you more food. That's why if you find you have a large number of farms but bakers aren't producing enough bread others have suggested switching a noble or two to growing only wheat for taxes....while still having some growing vegetables and barley for balanced nutrition.

Of course, I could be wrong :eek: :D (nah, j/k that never happens lol.)

[Maatkaamun]

Of course, I could be wrong :eek: :D (nah, j/k that never happens lol.)

Nope, you're right. :D

Setting a few nobles (I stay with 20-30%) to grow only wheat increases the amount of food harvested, and therefore the amount you get in taxes (standard 50% of the farms you know about).

BTW, last I checked, in a standard year, a wheat field produced 60 "wheats", barley 40, and vegetables 20.

[imhotep3147]

In Nekhen I've come up with a fairly good system. When I have at least 6 nobles I set one to grow only wheat, one only barley, one only vegetables. The rest I leave growing all. That way I have a little extra influx of bread making material without sacrificing balanced nutrition.

[Innovan]

There seems to be a difference between baskets and mats made from rushes vs reeds. Given a choice shopkeepers appear to like to make both, so I'm not sure how that's effecting pricing.

Likewise all the luxury goods can be made differently, from sandals made from rushes vs leather, to perfumes, even furniture.

I thought better quality items would enhance those household's prestige, helping them get to the front of the line for promotions over neighbors. But no, better quality items instead last longer, reducing how often they have to be shopped for. Makes sense for sandals made of rushes vs leather. Jewelery less so, but I'll go with it. :rolleyes:

[vic_4]

Well probably effect of a golden collier lasts longer on other peoples then that of a quarz ring.

[Innovan]

The goods bartered seems dependent on both what the buyer and the shopkeeper have, with merchants trying to get more of whatever food they're short of at the moment between Wheat, Barley, Lettuce and Onions, but limited in their choice to what buyers carried with them to the sale. Have yet to see a buyer turned away from a Common Merchant for not having enough food to trade.

I've seen rush mats sell for:
2 wheat 1 onion 1 lettuce
3 wheat
1 wheat 1 lettuce

which is a bean counter's nightmare. :p

Note that non-farmed foods (ie fish, pomegranates, fowl, etc) can not be bartered for any goods at all.

[Innovan]

While shoppers go out shopping for a specific item they need, if they have additional food left over they keep shopping. There may be some connection between which shopkeeper has the least amount of food in the local area and who the shopper chooses to buy from next.

Talk about being hungry for a sale!

[Maatkaamun]

Very informative thread. Thanks, Innovan.
I'm putting it on my list of threads to point new questioners to. :D