MERCHANT LAW "Quotes"

MERCHANT LAW :




" Gorean merchant law, which is the only law commonly acknowledged binding between cities."
Slave Girl of Gor" page 394



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