Re: Postfest: Bral Businesses

An old Bral business write up and I hope to enter a
new business later. This one is to just get it into
the records.
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Name: Eloise of Bral
Type: Tea House/Insurance Underwriter
Location: Shou Town, Dock Street & Dragon Street
Quality: 5
Prices: 3
Danger:1
Description:

Eloise of Bral, a wildspace trade insurance
underwriter association (based on Earth's Lloyd's of
London), is located in Eloise's Tea House on the
corner of Dock Street and Dragon Street. Though the
tea house is situated at the edge of Shou town, it is
frequented by different races who have business there.
The main business in the tea house, aside from serving
tea and drinks, is the insuring of wildspace trades,
providing reliable shipping news and other hospitality
services. Eloise Brahm herself is involved in the day
to day business transactions of the underwriters and
provides the premises where business is conducted.

The "underwriters" insure the ships and cargoes that
ply their trade on Bral. They are called underwriters
because below another signer they write their name and
the amount of risk they will cover. A committee of 18
members are elected once a year to provide leadership
and to settle disputes among members and traders. The
Eloise of Bral (hereby known as EOB) have a royal
charter giving it permission to insure wildspace trade
with the blessing of the royal court.

An independent ship's captain or speculator, unable to
find funding in the regular trade and merchant houses,
can seek alternative funding under EOB. Depending on
the business and the risk involved, the underwriters
provide funds for the independent trade venture with
the understanding that EOB shares in the profit. The
ship's captain has to show the business venture is
profitable and the risk is worthwhile. Even trade
houses seek underwriters to share the risk and profit
of a trade venture. A trading house or merchant house
can insure their cargoes and ships for a nominal fee
against loss to disasters or piracy. The amount
charged by the underwriters depends on the value of
the items being insured. The higher the value of the
items insured, the higher the fee charged. Also pirate
activities on the trade route, how many ships a
certain captain or trade house loses and how much
collateral the insured possesses raises or lowers the
insurance fee.

The underbarons use underwriting as a way to launder
their ill gotten loot. The underbarons have
representatives that secretly invest their funds into
safe ventures. The representatives also keep an open
ear where competing syndicates invest their money and
pass the information to their secret societies.
Information on competitors' ships are leaked to
several pirates' agents, who gather information on fat
rich trade ships.

The standard transaction is the amount needed to
insure a cargo and/or ship with the amount divided
into shares of risk and profit. The association would
hire adventurers, mercenaries and privateers if their
investment needed protecting or recovery. A bounty,
percentage of the recovered goods, would be awarded to
the finders of the goods. Salvaging of lost goods on
ship wrecks is another growing field and a lot of new
companies search wildspace or the flow for lost ships.
The underwriters do not insure black ships or treasure
ships. Black ships can find sponsorship with the
government body that hired them.


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SOME OF THE MEMBERS...

Eloise Brahm - Owner of Eloise's Tea House and one of
the underwriters of Eloise of Bral. She is a Ninth
level Bard and retired from adventuring life. She
started the tea house as an investment. Her first
underwriting happened when her friend, Captain Dumar,
needed seed money to open a newly found trading route.
Eloise gave him the money and the trade route proved
to be a money maker. People of influence and wealth
started to show interest in investing and insuring
wildspace trades. The underwriters association was
founded under the royal charter giving it permission
to do business in Bral. 

Red Silk Company - This is an investment group
secretly run by the yakuza. They invest the money they
receive from other ventures and funnel it here to be
laundered. The investment is proving more of a money
maker than first anticipated. The nine member council
rules the group (taking orders only from Shou Thieves'
Guild underbaron Ozamata Ku Murawa) and have agents
running the operation in the tea house. They would
fund ventures refused by other underwriters in
exchange for a higher percentage of the profit.
Captains who crossed the Red Silk usually found their
ships denied safe ports in Bral, their men attacked,
and their cargo looted.

Shire Trading Company - This is an investment group
specializing in insuring unique cargoes, ships, items
and even people. This group is secretly run by the
Halfling Thieves' Guild to insure that the Yakuza does
not control the underwriters association. Insurance is
more stable than wildspace trade investment, since the
captains pay to insure their goods. The captains or
speculators pay for their cargoes and ships to be
insured as a hedge against losing it from misfortune
or pirates. It is usually a percentage of the
perceived cost of the insured that the captain pay the
trading company. The higher the perceived danger or
risk associated with the items/person to be insured,
the higher the percentage to be paid.

Tenderfoot Investment Club - The club began as a way
for ordinary citizens of Bral to invest their money.
The growing wildspace trade proved to be a profitable
way for people to invest their meager savings for a
better future. Because there are a few hundred
investors, the club can absorb a bad investment
without wiping out a person's personal portfolio.
There is a 12 member fund manager council who are
voted in by a members-only annual election.

Empire Club - The Empire Club is an exclusive club
catering to adventurers and wealthy people. The club
invites adventurers of extraordinary caliber, whose
exploits and deeds exceed those of normal men. The
wealthy members fund the club in it's exploits,
sharing the thrills and danger of it's adventurer
members by proxy. These extraordinary gentlemen give
the rich bragging rights by association. The club
invests in highly speculative ventures, specially in
search of ancient civilization and artifacts. As a
contract rider, they reserve the right to attach one
or two of their members as observers to make sure
their investment stays safe.

Lord Reefa - Lord Reefa, a gold elf, is a new arrival
into Bral society. He is rumored to have become rich
from being a captain of an infamous pirate armada in a
distant unknown sphere. He likes to invest in normal
wildspace commerce and tries to avoid highly
speculative ventures.


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BUSINESS IS BUSINESS...

* Investment - When a new trade route or an expedition
to a lost treasure horde needs funding, these people
request sponsorship from the underwriters of EOB.

* Insurance - When a ship, cargo, person or item needs
to be protected against loss through disaster or
misfortune. Pirate attacks are not considered a
disaster but a man-made event, and extra fees are
required by the insurance agreement. Insurance is also
considered for high price commodities on proven trade
routes. Unlike investment, the insurer is paid by the
captains or speculators as a hedge against loss in a
disaster. The insurance is usually 5% to 25% of the
value of the cargo.

* Commodity Market - The speculative investment on
future prices of commodities. People who invest in
these ventures gamble that their buying price is lower
than their selling price. In Bral, commodity market is
a healthy business since all goods need to be
imported. Food, wine, metal and textiles are a few of
the commodities available to the investors. Farmers
and artisans sell their wares and investors buy them
with the hopes of selling it for a higher price. The
underwriters provide the funds for speculators to
invest in the commodity market for a percentage or a
fixed fee.

* Barter System - A system where goods and services
are exchanged. It is common to barter for needed goods
and services when lacking money. Adventurers usually
barter their service in exchange for goods or
services.

Typical Contract Components 
1) background information on the trade venture 
2) length of the voyage 
3) prize division between owners and crew 
4) prize division among the crew members 
5) stipulations about wages if offered 
6) worker's compensation for injury and sickness 
7) incentive pay for outstanding performance at
wildspace 
8) owners' expenses that were to be deducted from the
prize money 
9) penalties for moral misconduct 
10 penalties for disturbing the prize and its crew 


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ADVENTURE HOOKS...

1) The adventurers need their new trade route,
artifact recovery, or search for a lost civilization
funded and they try to talk the underwriters into
sponsoring it. 
2) A grand magical item is being shipped and the
underwriters hired the adventurers to guard their
investment. 
3) The adventurers needed to place their new found
wealth in a "safe" investment. 
4) One or all of the adventurers are being considered
for membership in the Empire Club. 



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