Rank 10 of 14
The Merchant
“Knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
He started with a single wagon of mismatched socks and now claims “exclusive import rights” to goods no one actually asked for, including inflatable flamingos, glittered scroll holders and something called “essential goose oil.”
Nobody knows where he gets his stuff. Nobody dares ask. He once sold a used candle to the Royal Advisor as a “time-reversal talisman.” She still swears it worked.
His motto: “Buy low, resell slightly higher, with confidence.” He's on a first-name basis with every peasant, noble and tax loophole in the realm, and somehow always walks away richer, even from a barter deal. Behind the smile? Calculations. Behind the gnomes in his backpack? Probably more gnomes.
Four copies, four lines
There are four Merchant cards in the deck, and each one says something different.
- Knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
- One man’s junk is another man’s limited-edition junk.
- Price is non-negotiable! Unless you’re paying in cash.
- With him, everything is always “on sale.”
In the game: beats ranks 1–9, loses to 11–14 and the Crown. See card ranks.
The real medieval merchant
Around 1300, Italian merchants were moving money across Europe with bills of exchange instead of hauling chests of coins over the Alps. Some of the oldest surviving double-entry account books date from right around then.
Up north, the merchant towns of the Hanseatic League ran trade around the Baltic. Riga, in today's Latvia, where this game comes from, joined in 1282. None of them sold essential goose oil, as far as we know.
More medieval jobs, and the world they live in: the world of Crown Shuffle.
Want to play the Merchant?
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