139
votes
Accepted
How could pirates reasonably transport dinosaurs in captivity, some of them enormous, across oceans?
In eggs
As in, a fertile dinosaur egg, not the adult. Moving livestock is always tricky, even more so when said livestock is composed of strong and dangerous creatures, which have a tendency to die ...
- 40.4k
81
votes
Accepted
Despite slain monsters continually yielding gold coins, why does gold's trading value seem to remain constant over the years?
Stuff appears. Stuff also disappears.
There is a large but finite amount of gold coin. When a monster spawns out of nowhere, gold coins to accompany it disappear from their various locations ...
- 304k
62
votes
Why would an advanced civilization even want slaves?
One of the ultimate signs of wealth is being able to command services from other humans at your whim. The ultra wealthy have maids, pilots, cooks, drivers, guards, etc. and even if these jobs could be ...
- 21.5k
62
votes
What would America lack if cut off from World trade for years?
So international trade with the USA is just wacky; eg 6 Of Top 10 U.S. Imports Are Also Top 10 Exports
Many things we worry about day to day will be fine - USA is essentially self sufficient for many ...
- 44.1k
58
votes
Trade Unions VS Guilds: semantics or is there a 'real' difference?
Guilds are the opposite of labor unions
Labor unions are formed to advocate for worker's rights against management. Labor union's tool is the strike, shutting down business operations and causing ...
- 85.1k
55
votes
Why do wild creatures carry money?
You kill the creature, you sell its fur/hide/meat/whatever and that turns into money.
Thanks to the real time service of RPGazon, you don't need to reach the closest village to monetize the bounty, it'...
- 277k
54
votes
Accepted
How would you build a harbor in a world with *intense* tides?
LOCKS
The answer is one that is used extensively today in canals and rivers: Locks.
Locks are basically double water-tight gates. If you want to go from high water to low, you sail in, the gates are ...
54
votes
Why would a space civ trade with a primitive civ?
Anthropology.
There would be intense scientific interest in watching a medieval society evolve. Human knowledge and understanding of such societies being limited to the lens of history and various ...
- 15.5k
52
votes
Why would a space civ trade with a primitive civ?
Comparative advantage would be stretched to the breaking point ...
The concept of comparative advantage explains why trade makes sense even if the more advanced civilizazion is better at everything.
...
- 112k
48
votes
Trading goods with harpies
Collected treasures.
https://www.mnn.com/family/family-activities/blogs/little-girl-feeds-crows-in-return-they-bring-her-gifts
Then, in 2013, Gabi decided to do more than just share the scraps of
...
- 304k
47
votes
Despite slain monsters continually yielding gold coins, why does gold's trading value seem to remain constant over the years?
Monsters get killed.
Gold comes out.
A "Hero" takes the gold.
They buy a sword.
With it, they commit more murder on innocent monster natives.
They buy another sword.
However, they never sell ...
- 3,321
44
votes
What would keep traders away from a specific area of the ocean?
Let's try a real world example
Say that the continent shown on the map is Africa. Traders coming from Shanghai in the east going to Amsterdam in the west have the option of going through the Suez ...
- 86k
44
votes
Accepted
How soon after first contact could an advanced civilization make large financial transactions on Earth?
As quickly as trades can be made.
The aliens want to buy a block of Manhattan. The owners of that block would like, oh, a couple billion dollars or whatever.
How can the aliens get a couple billion ...
- 7,652
43
votes
Trade Unions VS Guilds: semantics or is there a 'real' difference?
While most answers here seem to emphasize the exclusivity of guilds, the main (original) point of a guild has been only touched upon.
Guilds were founded to ensure competency in a professional trade, ...
- 526
41
votes
Despite slain monsters continually yielding gold coins, why does gold's trading value seem to remain constant over the years?
The wizards creating the monsters are being paid in gold, which they use as an ingredient in the monster spawning spell. The gold is used but not consumed, so it ends up with the new monster.
Because ...
- 14.4k
38
votes
Accepted
How would purely underground settlements find and trade with each other?
It seems odd that an organization would set up multiple 1000 bed bunkers and not provide some method for them to contact each other. So any search for other bunkers should start by a thorough review ...
- 69.1k
38
votes
Accepted
What would keep traders away from a specific area of the ocean?
Blue Reefs
The southern sea is big and open. The winds can go hard and the waves high, and there is no dry land nearby. This by itself would make the journey somewhat dangerous, but not especially so.
...
- 4,137
37
votes
Trading goods with harpies
Information
Harpies can fly and this would make them invaluable to help map-makers, to plot roads, to inspect large fields, and any other number of activities.
They also could carry messages between ...
- 5,945
37
votes
Why would an advanced civilization even want slaves?
SEX TRADE:
(and assorted criminal activities)
I hate to point out the obvious (ok, that's a lie; I LOVE to point it out) but most of the slavery in the US not linked to sweatshops is in the sex trade. ...
- 63.2k
36
votes
How can I have a caravan without camels?
Sail chariots
On Earth, we seldom have used terrestrial transport propelled by sails because, unlike sea winds, terrestrial winds are weaker, more turbulent and thus less constant and predictable, ...
- 8,564
36
votes
How would you build a harbor in a world with *intense* tides?
Some years ago I went to Scarborough (Yorkshire) and visited the local harbor during low tide: all the ships were sitting on wet sand, as shown in the painting below (for some reason I can only find ...
- 277k
33
votes
Accepted
Which goods make sense to transport over interstellar distances?
Things that are unique
Whether it's a mineral, a plant or an animal, the only place you know you can find it is <insert planet name here>. Well you have to ...
- 8,902
33
votes
How can I justify an Iron monopoly?
A little frame challenge here - your advanced cultures have a steel monopoly rather than iron monopoly.
All cultures can make iron, but it is a very crude iron which is inferior to bronze. And, unlike ...
- 42.2k
32
votes
Why would a space civ trade with a primitive civ?
They're trading for things that are still valued in an advanced society.
Obvious things are fur, spices, foods, wines, timber, wool, gemstones like amber or opals, pearls, crafted objects such as art, ...
- 45.9k
30
votes
Accepted
How can I have a caravan without camels?
Relays
Not electronics, I mean, takeovers. No, I don't mean coup... just read...
The basic idea is that to move the merchandise, it has to change hands many times across various small settlements, ...
- 6,380
30
votes
Is a world with one country feeding everyone possible?
You are asking about a world with two centers of food production and asking if they can feed everybody who doesn't live in one of those centers. There are three main factors to consider:
...
- 19.5k
29
votes
What would keep traders away from a specific area of the ocean?
Teredo worms
The sea that lays to the south of your continent is cursed by having the ideal salinity and temperature for a particularly aggressive family of Teredo worms
While these creatures may also ...
- 3,820
29
votes
Why do wild creatures carry money?
Shiny! Give me the shiny! Real-world crow behavior of collecting shiny things simply because they are shiny is simply incredibly prevalent in RPG monster behavior.
The real question is why there is ...
- 3,194
28
votes
Accepted
How to Supply a City on top of a Vertical Cliff?
Windmills and archimedian screws. The winds rush frequently past the cliffs, turning the archimedian screws that bring crescents of water ever upward. Each screw goes for only fifty feet or so, but ...
- 21.7k
27
votes
Despite slain monsters continually yielding gold coins, why does gold's trading value seem to remain constant over the years?
Monster whomping mostly replaces mining
If, in addition to your monster-based economy, gold is still being mined the old-fashioned way then it might be less valuable than in mundane history. But if ...
- 8,656
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible