Now hear me out, this is more than a 5 minute fix, but if we want BM to develop its trade facets this will be one step on that path. I've been awaiting the new trade system for about.... 2+ RL years and I'm ready. Okay, here we go!
I have a few parts to this idea, but there's one real core nugget to consider, and I know the initial reaction may not be favorable, but try to bear with me.
Each region needs a money vault.
Yes, you heard me right, a place to put money that's not on your person, a guild or bonds. A for real, local region vault. There's a reason (actually a couple), and I hope I can convince you it's a good idea.
For a trading system to work, gold needs to be associated with the trading, not just the noble. You see, if a region is buying and selling food (and eventually other goods), there needs to be a pile of gold to exchange for it. Right now that pile is in the hands of the Lord personally, but the Steward kind of mucks that up. If the Steward buys some food, he pays for it out of pocket. If we start adding more goods, then this will rapidly become untenable.
You see, we already have places to put gold (guilds, temples), but these are not associated with region maintenance. A region's vault would be the nexus of the region's various needs:
0) Building maintenance at regular intervals
1) Paying militia at regular intervals, with warnings about not paying just like a normal unit
2) Repairing (and upgrading) walls
3) Paying into monster/undead bounties
4) Building new buildings
5) *Trade* of all sorts. Sales go to the vault directly and immediately, purchases leave from there
6) Festival costs
7) (possibly) put funds into the warchest of any armies associated with the region
These could then be associated with the region's funds, not just the Lord's funds. The Lord (of course) could take and put into the vault, as is his prerogative.
This means that the role of Steward would no longer be a wacky, more title than use kind of role within the realm. Stewards could handle more of the maintenance, and give the Banker a redundant person to go to if the Lord is unavailable or just doesn't care.
This alone would be useful, but it also allows us to continue to even greater heights for how to organize things financially, and especially with trade involved.
You realise that both the Lord and the Steward can place buy and sell orders that use the current Region Trade Balance rather then paying for them out of pocket right? It is one way I increase the tax income for my knights, by ensuring food my regions sells goes into the trade balance which is then distributed at tax time.
