The basis of a city, beside its treasury, are its commodities. The main distinction between a city and a village is the amount of commodities and resources it commands. Amassing commodities is an important duty which all governments must take seriously. Good trading will set the city in good stead, but bad trading can cripple or destroy it.
All cities, villages and towns have a number of fields either outside or just within their city walls, which those with even a basic farming ability can plough and utilise. Each spring, these fields must be ploughed and planted with seed. In autumn, the fields should have a healthy crop ready for harvesting. It is the duty of both the Minister of State and the Minister of Trade to ensure the crops are planted and harvested, and then processed and stored within the commodity stores that can be built to protect them from being stolen by ruthless individuals that seek to cripple a city. Other commodities are ammassed via the skill of Labours, rather than Farming, and these commodities (such as rope, all of the metals and glass to name but a few) must also be found, and purchased or donated to the city from citizens or other settlements.
It is the responsibility of the Minister of Trade and his aides to purchase commodities from citizens, to ensure that the fields of a city are ploughed, planted and harvested, or leased out to individuals for them to do on their own, and that they know who in the city can assist them with their task. The Minister works closely with the Minister of State, part of whose job is to plan and ensure the city has enough of the commodities it needs.
The Minister of State, or an aide, once a commodity store has been built may enter it to pick up or drop off commodities. The Minister for Trade and aides (unless they also assist the Minister of State) can enter the stores to deposit commodities only. both ministries may utilise the city locksmith to unlock both the exterior and interior doors of commodity stores. Guards, and protective shadows flitter around the stores, keeping out unwanted people and protecting the commodities within. Members of the State ministry may type STOCK followed by any of the city's commodities to review a log of all city stocks and their whereabouts.
Guilds may also construct commodity stores for the safe holding of commodities, note however that the name of the store is intended as a general guide as to what lies within it; it makes sense to store all the commodities in their own store, yet for a guild this would be exceedingly expensive, so they may only have one or two stores. You should speak to your elders or guildmaster to discover futher information about where commodities are stored within your guild.
