Guide 10 of 20
The Merchant Notebook
The Merchant Notebook is your most important planning tool. The newspaper tells you what is happening now; the notebook helps you remember what you personally paid, sold and observed.
It appears during the early tutorial and pulses until opened for the first time. If you ignore it, Old Marlow reminds you after two later mornings—the morning on which it first appeared does not count.
Purchases and Sales
This section records your transactions. Use it to answer:
- What did I pay per unit?
- What did I sell the good for?
- Was the apparent margin real?
- Which town produced the better result?
Before setting a barrel's price, check the purchase cost here. A high selling price can still be poor business when the stock was expensive to acquire.
Goods pages
Goods pages compare the last fair market price you personally observed in each visited town. The value remains recorded while you are away; it does not turn back into an unknown price merely because the town is distant.
The limitation is important: it is a last recorded price, not a live quotation. Rivals, shortages, surpluses and politics may have changed the town since your visit.
Use these pages to form a route idea, then confirm it with newer evidence such as the newspaper or a rumour.
Rivals
When rivals unlock, their pages summarize concise recorded activity, such as:
- Bought goods in Appleford
- Sold goods in Sunmere
- Travelling to Mosswick
Clicking a rival's marker in the Map Room opens the corresponding notebook page.
Laws and decrees
The politics section shows rules that are genuinely active or incoming. Repealed, expired or replaced rules should not remain mixed into the active list.
Navigation
Use the visible page controls, or:
- A / Left Arrow for the previous spread
- D / Right Arrow for the next spread
Bookmarks open the sections currently available in your version and progression state. The demo intentionally omits town pages and contract-related content.
Best practice
The notebook is evidence, not prophecy. Purchase history is exact; recorded town prices may be old. Strong decisions combine both kinds of information.