quote:

---

I think the fundamental tension is as follows. On the one hand Forgotten Realms is full of trade which occurs on boats and, even more expensively, on overland caravans. On the other hand, the Forgotten Realms is full of magic, including magic allowing the instantaneous transportation of goods and people between one location and another. This begs the question, why not use this teleportation magic for trade instead of these old fashioned nonmagical methods?

---

quote:

---

So I think the first choice for every DM is whether teleportation-for-trade is something you want to embrace or to avoid. If you're embracing the use of teleportation magic to facilitate trade, probably the teleportation activity and network will grow until the opportunity costs of casting Teleport and/or maintaining Teleportation Circles are equal to the profit made from buying low in one region and selling high in another. This will standardize the prices of goods across the world, creating a 'world market', especially for high value-to-weight goods like magical items. Possibly low value-to-weight goods will still be transported in the old fashion nonmagical ways, but it is important not to underestimate how slow, expensive, and dangerous nonmagical methods of travel for trade are, especially overland trade.

---

quote:

---

In my muggle-life I am an economist, and perhaps I think about this stuff more than I should. One of my players is a trade economist and thinks about this stuff even more than I do!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wendolyn

Great topic! And something I think of often, both for the Forgotten Realms and also my various homebrew worlds.

In my muggle-life I am an economist, and perhaps I think about this stuff more than I should. One of my players is a trade economist and thinks about this stuff even more than I do!

I think the fundamental tension is as follows. On the one hand Forgotten Realms is full of trade which occurs on boats and, even more expensively, on overland caravans. On the other hand, the Forgotten Realms is full of magic, including magic allowing the instantaneous transportation of goods and people between one location and another. This begs the question, why not use this teleportation magic for trade instead of these old fashioned nonmagical methods?

So I think the first choice for every DM is whether teleportation-for-trade is something you want to embrace or to avoid. If you're embracing the use of teleportation magic to facilitate trade, probably the teleportation activity and network will grow until the opportunity costs of casting Teleport and/or maintaining Teleportation Circles are equal to the profit made from buying low in one region and selling high in another. This will standardize the prices of goods across the world, creating a 'world market', especially for high value-to-weight goods like magical items. Possibly low value-to-weight goods will still be transported in the old fashion nonmagical ways, but it is important not to underestimate how slow, expensive, and dangerous nonmagical methods of travel for trade are, especially overland trade.

Alternatively, you could try to cook things up somehow to make it so teleportation magic doesn't get used for trade. This is what Ed Greenwood tries to do yes? I think this is also the camp I'm in, largely because trade caravans and overseas boats are (1) cool and (2) great grist for adventure. So the challenge here is coming up with ways to make teleportation either too costly or too risky for it to be used profitably and sustainably for trade.

You could also split the difference -- having trade for high value-to-weight goods like magic items occurring via teleport, and low value-to-weight goods like grain occurring via boat.

TheIriaeban, do you agree with this way of analyzing things? And if so you're more in the embracing teleportation-for-trade camp?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Arcanamach

Someone may have already mentioned this but Mystra actively tries to prevent any one person/group/nation from establishing and controlling too many portals. There are dangers involving them and she also wishes to prevent them from dominating other people/groups/nations through them. You can reference one of her former Magisters (in Secrets of the Magister) for a bit of info on this (I forget which Magister it was though).

That said, assuming no Spellplague (or similar incidents in the future) I believe it's only a matter of time before your hypothetical portal trade comes to fruition. It's happened with at least 3 nations before (Netheril, Imaskar and Myth Drannor) on some level. Methinks it will happen again.

---