The Economy Of The Caravan Ages

The economy of the Caravan Ages developed around silver, ledgers, services, credit, and extraordinarily long measures of obligation. Among the Kydahni themselves, commercial relationships tended toward favorable terms because clan reputation, recurring contact, and immense life expectancy made short-term exploitation strategically foolish. A debt could remain socially and commercially relevant for generations, while individuals might live long enough to personally encounter obligations incurred centuries earlier.

Internal credit therefore became unusually dependable: Kydahni paid Kydahni well, extended substantial trust to proven partners, and treated reliable settlement as an investment in future access to the greater network. Foreign dealings were considerably less forgiving. External debt was an asset to be collected, transferred, leveraged, inherited, or converted into concessions, and the Wolves developed an infamous patience regarding repayment. A foreign dynasty might expect political turnover to erase an inconvenient obligation only to discover that the Kydahni ledger still remembered precisely what was owed. Silver provided a durable common foundation beneath this economy, but increasingly the true wealth of the Caravan Ages existed in recorded obligation and the services those obligations could command.