The Trader class would be greatly improved by recognising that these aren't mere merchant adventurers but powerful magnates trading food across hundreds of miles.
It makes sense that merchants would have warehouses and manufacturies in the regions they deal with, the way priests have shrines. These could be used to store food separate from granaries and also generate modest amounts of gold based on some notion of market reach. Likewise they would be taxed, putting gold into the region coffers.
Traders then go from being a dull class with little impact on the game to being a very desirable addition to a realm.
