Exports
Goods export is the process of selling items offshore. This results in sending the item away, receiving currency in return. The items sold this way disappear from the game forever. Likewise, the currency appears out of nothing, allowing you to generate more currency for your play.
Requisitions
It is not possible to sell just any item offshore. At any given time, the trade post will be buying a specific list of items, each with a given quantity. The item being bought by the trade post, along with its quantity and price, is called a requisition.
Requisitions consist of three pieces of information:
- Item name - tells you what item is being bought.
- Quantity - tells you how many pieces of the item the post wants.
- Price - gives you the price per one unit of the item.
New requisitions arrive on a regular basis, replacing the list that was available up to that point. This means that if you don't sell your items in time, you might have to wait until you can sell them again. Similarly, if you sell all of the desired quantity, the requisition will close and you will not be able to sell any more.
Price Changes
The prices of requisitions will adjust themselves based on:
- Events in the world.
- Previous trade patterns.
You generally have no control over the events in the world, meaning there will always be some variation in terms of price. One week bread may be more demanded due to food shortage on the mainland, another it may drop in price as the mainland stocks up on food. However, characters are directly responsible for the trade pattern. If you always completely fill a requisition (supply the mainland with plenty of the item), the price will generally go down. If you do not fill a specific requisition for a while, the price will generally go up.
Competition
The requisitions are shared with every other character on the island. This means that if someone completes a requisition before you, you won't be able to sell the items any more. Keep in mind that characters are not only played by players, but also by the artificial intelligence in the form of NPCs. NPCs also sell goods on the export post, meaning they will try to outsmart you in order to make a profit.
Successful traders will be quick and won't hesitate to complete orders in an efficient manner.
Export Tax
Depending on how your local politicians run the town, there will be a varying export tax on the process of exporting goods. This tax is always applied before you get the currency for your trade, leaving you with the remainder. The tax is automatically sent to the trade account of the relevant town. It is useful to consider this beforehand, as it may influence the profitability of your trade.
For example: you sell two swords at 20 poli(p) each. The export tax is set at 25%.
20p x 2 = 40p (value of the trade) -> 40p * 0.25 = 10p (export tax). The town takes 10p, leaving you with 30p for your sale.
