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The Merchant's Guild building in Ehrenfest.
The Merchant's Guild is the most powerful guild in the city of Ehrenfest, as you need to be registered to buy or sell anything as a business. Not even putting up a stall within the city-limits is permitted without a registration at the guild.
Location and Description
The guild building is located at the north-east corner of the central plaza in Ehrenfest.[1]
- The ground floor is a parking area for carriages and carts.[2]
- The second floor is a large hall dealing mainly with owners of small shops and market stalls, as well as travelling merchants.[2]
To gain access from here on, one needs a guild card acquired by registering with the Merchant's Guild.
- The third floor contains meeting rooms as well as the front desk for larger businesses. There is a waiting space with a file cabinet, bench and table by the front desk. On the file cabinet there are scrolls and wooden plaques about the rules and regulations of the guild, mercantile law, noble almanacs plus a map of the surrounding area.
- The fourth floor contains the Guildmaster's office.
Important documents are stored on the higher floors.
Services
Anyone who wants to buy or sell things as a business must be registered with the guild. The second floor deals with people who run stalls, small stores and travelling merchants.[2] This is the largest group of people and it can become very busy, especially just before the market opens.
The third floor is more presentable, with carpets and tapestries, and it is where larger businesses go in order to register paperwork and conduct large meetings together.[3]
Apart from being necessary to access the areas above the second floor, the guild card can also be used to store, make and receive payments in an immaterial way, similar to Earth's credit cards.
Guild cards are given to new members usually upon signing a contract with a store, though there is a special exception that allows temporary registration at the guild meant for children of merchants, so they can help in their parent's stores even before their baptism.[2]
Security
The upper levels of the guild are open only to members.
The Merchant's Guild is locked with a weak magic lock when it is closed. To enter higher floors, commoners need a guild card. There is a magic circle acting as the gate, with a simple mana identification function.
Both systems provide barely any protection against even low ranking nobles, but are highly effective against anyone incapable of wielding mana.[4]
History
When the first Aub Ehrenfest moved to the newly re-crismed city, the Othmar Company was already one of the most influencial trade companies in the area. Due to their position the new Archduke often relied on them as third-party negotiators in business deals with commoners. Due to how useful this informal arrangement proofed to be, the Archduke later formalized it, which was the birth of the Merchant's Guild. It has been under the care of Gustav's family since this very inception.
It's charter is to help the nobles interact with the commoners as well as settling disputes between stores by overseeing the rules as well as providing neutral third-party negotiators.[5]
They are also involved in the signing and storage of city-wide magical contracts[6]
Trivia
- Upon breaking into the document storage of the guild Justus is impressed with the competence of whoever is keeping the documents so well organized and neatly stored.[4]
References
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 1 Volume 1. Illustrated Map before Prologue
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 1 Volume 2. Chapter 11: The Merchants' Guild
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 1 Volume 3. Benno — Pound Cake Sampling
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 3 Volume 2. Justus's Grand Lower City Infiltration
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 1 Volume 3. The Roots of the Guildmaster's Worries
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 2 Volume 4. Freida - A Visit to the Noble's Quarter