Merchant Law

MERCHANT LAW

Technology

"Weapon technology is controlled to the point where the most powerful devices of war are the crossbow and lance. Further, there is no mechnanized transportion or communication equipment or detection devices such as the radar and sonar equipment so much in evidence in the military establishments of your world. From time to time these items are produced, but their owners are then destroyed, burthing into flame. It is the Flame Death merely to possess a weapon of the interdicted sort." "Tarnsman of Gor" page 31


Neutrality

"He himself resided, I understood, in Telnus, the capital of Cos, where his company had its headquarters. His work chains, however, were politically neutral, understood under merchant law as hirable instruments. They might, accordingly, and sometimes did, work for both sides in given conflicts." "Dancer of Gor" page 322


Slave Wars

"She was referring to a series of wars, loosely referred to as the Slave Wars, which occurred among various cities in the middle latitudes of Gor, off and on, over a period of approximately a generation. They had occurred long before my coming to Gor. Although large-scale slaving was involved in these wars, and was doubtless a sufficient condition for them, hence the name, other considerations, as would be expected, were often involved, as well, such as the levying of tribute and the control of trade routes. Out of the Slave Wars grew much of the merchant law pertaining to slaves." "Vagabonds of Gor" Page 272


Fairs

"The fairs incidentally are governed by Merchant Law and supported by booth rents and taxes levied on the items exchanged. The commercial facilities of these fairs, from money changing to general banking, are the finest I know of on Gor, save those in Ar’s Street of Coins, and letters of credit are accepted and loans negotiated, though often at usurious rates, with what seems reckless indifference. Yet perhaps this is not so puzzling, for the Gorean cities will, within their own walls, enforce the Merchant Law when pertinent, even against their own citizens. If they did not, of course, the fairs would be closed to the citizens of that city." "Priest-Kings of Gor" Page 11


Stockades

"The Merchants have, in the last few years, on certain trade routes, between Ar and Ko-ro-ba, and between Tor and Ar, established palisaded compounds, defensible stockades. These, where they exist, tend to be placed approximately a day’s caravan march apart. "Captive of Gor" Page 219

"Various cities, through their own Merchant Castes, lease land for these stockades and, for their fees, keep their garrisons, usually men of their own cities, supplied. The stockades are governed under Merchant Law, legislated and revised, and upheld, at the Sardar Fairs." "Captive of Gor" Page 219

"Normally, the merchant camp, like the better-organised military camps, not the melange that constituted the camp of Pa-Kur is laid out geometrically, and, night after night, one puts up one's tent in the same relative position. Whereas the military camp is usually laid out in a set of concentric squares, reflecting the fourfold principle of military organisation customary on Gor, the merchant camp is laid out in concentric circles, the guards' tents occupying the outermost ring, the craftsmen's, strap-masters', attendants and slaves' quarters occupying inner rings, and the centre being reserved for the merchant, his goods, and his body-guard." "Tarnsman of Gor" page 166


Ports

"The representative of the Merchants, to whom I reported my business, and to whom I paid for wharfage, asked no questions. He did not even demand the proof of registration of the Tesephone in Tabor. The Merchants, who control Lydius, under merchant law, for it is a free port, like Helmutsport, and Schendi and Bazi, are more interested in having their port heavily trafficked than strictly policed." "Hunters of Gor" Page 43


Standardized Measures

"I have calculated this figure from the Weight, a Gorean unit of measurement based on the Stone, which is about four Earth pounds. A Weight is ten Stone. The Weight and Stone, incidentally, are standardized through the Gorean cities by Merchant Law, the only common body of law existing among the cities. The official “Stone,” actually a solid metal cylinder, is kept, by the way, near the Sardar. Four times a year, on a given day in each of the four great fairs held annually near the Sardar, it is brought forth with scales, that merchants from whatever city may test their own standard “Stone” against it." "Raiders of Gor" page 127

"As in the case of the official “Stone”, so, too, at the Sardar is a metal rod, which determines the Merchant Foot, or Gorean foot, as I have called it." "Raiders of Gor" Page 127/8

"Every year at the Sardar Fair there is a motion before the bankers, literally, the coin merchants, to introduce a standardization of coinage among the major cities. To day, however this has not been accomplished. (...) I was not of the merchants, nor, among them, of the coin merchants." "Magicians of Gor" page 411


Patents

"On the other hand, I suspect that they fear too broad a dissemination of the caste knowledge. Physicians, interestingly, perhaps for a similar reason, tend to keep records in archaic Gorean, which is incomprehensible to most Goreans. Many craftsmen, incidentally, keep such things as formulas for certain kinds of glass and alloys, and manufacturing processes, generally, in cipher. Merchant law has been unsuccessful, as yet, in introducing such things as patents and copyrights on Gor. Such things do exist in municipal law on Gor but the jurisdictions involved are, of course, local." "Magicians of Gor" page 394


Dying Hair

"One would not wish to buy a girl thinking she was auburn, a rare and muchly prized hair color on Gor, for example, and then discover later that she was, say, blond. Against such fraud, needless to say, the law provides redress. Slavers will take pains in checking out new catches, or acquisitions, to ascertain the natural color of their hair, one of the items one expects to find, along with fingerprints and measurements, and such, on carefully prepared slave papers." "Vagabonds of Gor" page 186


Brands and collars

"But her left thigh worn no brand. Her right thigh, too, as I soon noted, did not wear the slave mark, nor did her lower left abdomen. These are the three standard marking places, following the recommendations of Merchant Law, for the marking of Kajirae, with the left thigh being, in practice, the overwhelmingly favored brand site." "Fighting Slave of Gor" Page 312

"The thighs and the lower left abdomen are the brand sites recommended by Merchant Law." "Fighting Slave of Gor" Page 349

"In the case of the girl, Rowena, of course, as she was already a self-pronounced slave, the brand and collar were little more than identificatory formalities. Nonetheless she would wear them. They would be fixed visibly and clearly upon her. This is in accord with the prescriptions of merchant law." "Players of Gor" Page 36


Sharing Home Stone

"“You understand further, of course,” said he, “that under Gorean merchant law, which is the only law commonly acknowledged binding between cities, that you stand under separate permissions of enslavement. First, were you of Ar, it would be my right, could I be successful, to make of you a slave, for we share no Home Stone. Secondly, though you speak of yourself as the Lady Elicia of Ar, of Six Towers, you are, in actuality, Miss Elicia Nevins of the planet Earth. You are an Earth girl and thus stand within a general permission of enslavement, fair beauty quarry to any Gorean male whatsoever.” "Slave Girl of Gor" page 394