Tag Archives: Guild of Traders

Balance of Trade – Chapter 35

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Day 168
Standard Year 1118

Irikwae Port

In which there are several beginnings for Jethri and his family.

This is another chapter where I’d probably have a lot to say if I were reading it for the first time, but this time round it’s more the minor details catching my attention.

One really trivial detail is that when Jethri’s thinking about all the people at the Tarnia clanhouse he misses already, one of those listed is a “Mrs tel’Bonti” who is not mentioned anywhere else in the book. Presumably the person being referred to is the cook, Mrs tor’Beli, who does not otherwise appear in the list.

Seeli’s news settles it: there’s definitely something going on between her and Grig. I wonder for how long? “A couple of Standard Months” is since they began their stay on Kinaveral, but of course there’s nothing to say they haven’t been carrying on longer than that.

It’s an interesting touch that the Spacers would prefer their baby to be born in space. Seems to me that would mean they’re a long way from help if anything goes wrong, but then again a Spacer’s life consists almost entirely, one way or another, of being a long way from help if anything goes wrong.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 34

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Day 166
Standard Year 1118

Irikwae

In which Jethri is called up for testing and certification.

Therin yos’Arimyst, the Hall Master who is to be responsible for testing Jethri for certification as a member of the Liaden Guild of Traders, is reputed to be very conservative. This mixes good and bad: on the one hand, it means Jethri isn’t going to have an easy time of it, but on the other if the conservative accepts him then he’s properly accepted, whereas if the judgement were made by a more easygoing person there might have been other more conservative Guild members still inclined to question it.

Another noteworthy bit of physical affection: Miandra places her hand on Jethri’s face, which for a Liaden is a particularly intimate gesture, reserved for close kin and other loved ones. Little wonder Meicha hisses at her.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 22

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Day 125
Standard Year 1118

Modrid

In which Jethri and the master of Modrid Trade Hall make their opinions of each other very clear.

Jethri shows a couple of times in this chapter that he doesn’t expect the regard of others. As Master ven’Deelin notes, when the Hall Master refuses to accept him as Master ven’Deelin’s apprentice he’s more upset about the insult to her than the corresponding slighting of himself. And then he admits that it hadn’t occurred to him that his uncle might have genuinely considered that he had properly earned the right to hold the ten-year Combine key. Perhaps it comes of being the baby of a large family, with or without the addition of a parent who wants nothing to do with him. It’s something he’s going to have to work on; humility is well and good, but a trader is not going to get very far without a sense of his own consequence.

The historic tapestry of surpassing ugliness is an amusing detail.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 21

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Day 123
Standard Year 1118

Elthoria
Modrid Approach

In which Master ven’Deelin’s apprentice trades solo for the first time.

Did I say Jethri’s habit of nervously playing with his lucky fractin had disappeared? Not entirely, it turns out.

The partly-overheard conversation at the end of the chapter would sound quite portentous if I didn’t remember what it’s about.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 17

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Day 107
Standard Year 1118

Elthoria and Tilene

In which Jethri’s new status occasions some changes of schedule.

Norn ven’Deelin says, in word and in deed, that she trusts Jethri to behave honorably and do well, and not to make her regret claiming him as kin. I wonder how she’d have handled the situation if she didn’t trust him so well. (She wouldn’t have let the chel’Gaibins take him while he was under her protection, and perhaps she might have claimed him as kin anyway, seeing no other option – because I don’t think she’d have done that, even trusting Jethri as she does, if she’d seen another option – but perhaps she’d have arranged his schedule differently, kept him more out of the public eye, and let it be more in name than in fact.) On the other hand, perhaps this is a pointless question: if she didn’t already think well of him, he wouldn’t have been trading under her on Tilene and the situation would never have arisen.

The Master Trader’s concern over the unnamed practice lately surfaced on Tilene is ominous, especially once one starts wondering if it’s of a piece with the “climate changes” observed by her friend the Scout Captain on Kailipso.

Tan Sim’s family are seriously unpleasant people. Not that we hadn’t already been getting that impression, of course.

Balance of Trade – Chapter 5

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Day 35
Standard Year 1118

Gobelyn’s Market
Dockside

In which Jethri finds his ship.

I can never decide whether Jethri’s tendency to assume a person is being straight with him until proven otherwise is a testament to his own honor or just a sign of naivety. I’m not saying it’s wrong to give people the benefit of the doubt, but to never even consider the possibility of a deception seems like a weak point in a trader.

You probably know that “Balance of Trade” was originally a short story that ended up as chapters 2 through 5 of the novel. This being chapter 5, it seems like the right moment to cast an eye over the differences. There is some tweaking of wording and punctuation, unsurprisingly, and it’s expanded a bit with extra details that will be relevant after the point where the story ended: most of the mentions of Jethri’s family apart from his mother and uncle, and all mentions of fractins and of Combine trade keys. So far as those go, they might be regarded as storyteller’s choice of what to include or leave out, but there are also parts of the story that are flat-out different. The details of Arin’s death, what few there are, are different (and fewer) in the novel, and most of the fine details involved in the trades, of who bought how much of what for which price are changed. The numbers being thrown around during the negotiation over the cellosilk are an entire order of magnitude lower.