Dutford Merchant Company

The Dutford Merchant Company is a Dercian trading company trading out of the city of Dutford on the northern coast of the Empire of Dercia.
Originally, just a small family-run trading company with only a handful of small coastal trading ships the company rose to account for almost half of the trade in the Northern sea by the beginning of the 11th century.

Expansion

Due to either pure luck or godly intervention, all of the company's ships were in port for maintenance or repairs when a series of storms hit the northern sea and scores of trading ships that were still on the sea were lost along with their goods, this resulted in the Dutford Merchant Company being one of the only companies with ships that could fill the now wide open gab in the market, so with a loan from the government the company set out to acquire new ships and vastly expanded their percentage of the trade in the northern sea.
The company are also one of the few that are allowed to conduct trade with the Principality of Clifia and thanks to this they were able to expand their presence to an even more prominent degree and this was one of the key factors in them having a leading role in the northern trade routes.

Trade monopoly

At the beginning of the 12th century, the company was granted the monopoly on the trade with silk, indigo dye and certain spices for 10 years at a time.

Company pirates

Around 1186 the Dutford pirate incident occurred where a number of trade ships were attacked by pirates and when news reached the Dercian public it came to a public outcry and the company was nearly shut down when it became known that it was one of their captains that had gone rogue and the government issued a 200 goldpieces in reward for information that would lead to the capture of the pirate and in an effort to save the rest of their public image the company added another 400 goldpieces to the reward

Through trade we are united

Founding Date

1053

Type

Guild, Merchant

Leader Title

Prince

Location

Dutford

Industry
International trade
Headquarters
Dutford house, Dutford, Empire of Derica.
products
Cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, and tea.