Pyramid #3/52: Low-Tech II

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

There's one other small thing I didn't factor in since I had zero data, but some things travel terribly. Spices, you can pack up in a chest and ship across the continent. Animals are different. Cattle and pigs can be driven to market, but the exercise burns off some fat, so you need to either sell animals who weigh less (and get less money) or fatten them up again (which costs you more).

On the other hand, the price of meat in places distant from raising country has to cover the price of buying them plus the cost of driving them, whatever condition they tend to arrive in. In an market at equilibrium you will get more at the distant market. Meat will be dearer there; you can't figure back from a supposed universal price of meat.

I had some figures once on the prices of cattle and of pigs in Gloucestershire and London. Because cattle are easier and cheaper to drove than pigs are, the price in London is raised more for pigs than it is for cattle, proportionately.