. . . There
is a saying on Gor that the laws of a city extend no further than
its walls.
---Outlaw of Gor
, 6:50
And the possible one exception
to this rule is merchant law. Merchants, although not considered
of a high caste, enjoy considerable influence in most Gorean cities
and have a clear advantage over many castes in that they are able
to directly affect the life of Goreans and the decisions of Gorean
government. Whereas Gorean law is essentially a matter of local
power, the Caste of Merchants has managed to build a set of rules
pertaining to trade which are used throughout all of Gor.
. . . There
is a saying on Gor, “Gold has no caste.” It is a saying
of which the merchants are fond. Indeed, secretly among themselves,
I have heard, they regard themselves as the highest caste on Gor,
though they would not say so for fear of rousing the indignation
of other castes. There would be something, of course, to be said
for such a claim, for the merchants are often indeed in their way,
brave, shrewd, skilled men, making long journeys, venturing their
goods, risking caravans, negotiating commercial agreements, among
themselves developing and enforcing a body of Merchant Law, the
only common legal arrangements existing among the Gorean cities.
Merchants also, in effect, arrange and administer the four great
fairs that take place each year near the Sardar Mountains. I say
“in effect” because the fairs are nominally under the
direction of a committee of the Caste of Initiates, which, however,
largely contents itself with its ceremonies and sacrifices, and
is only too happy to delegate the complex management of those vast,
commercial phenomena, the Sardar Fairs, to members of the lowly,
much-despised Caste of Merchants, without which, incidentally, the
fairs most likely could not exist, certainly not at any rate in
their current form.
---Nomads of Gor
, 9:84
. . . The
fairs, too, however, have many other functions. . . . It is here
that Merchant Law is drafted and stabilized. . . .
---Beasts of Gor
, 3:44
Aside from being the law
system adopted by many trade ports and cities, merchant law is said
to be almost universally applied in areas of trade. It is also the
only law which commonly binds all cities, with probable exceptions
(as with most things). Merchant law is drafted and stabilized at
the fairs which are held four times a year at the foot of the Sardar
Mountains. It covers as many aspects of trade and merchanting as
one can think of, including, of course, the market of human property.
“The fairs incidentally
are governed by Merchant Law and supported by booth rents and taxes
levied on the items exchanged. The commercial facilities of these
fairs, from money changing to general banking, are the finest I
know of on Gor, save those in Ar’s Street of Coins, and letters
of credit are accepted and loans negotiated, though often at usurious
rates, with what seems reckless indifference. Yet perhaps this is
not so puzzling, for the Gorean cities will, within their own walls,
enforce the Merchant Law when pertinent, even against their own
citizens. If they did not, of course, the fairs would be closed
to the citizens of that city.”
---Priest-Kings of Gor
, p 10
It is important to understand
the separation of jurisdiction when it comes to areas which may
have matters of civil law from matters of merchant law. In the case
of slaves for example, the laws by which one may be enslaved, the
laws which determine what a slave may or may not do in public places
will be a matter of civil law. The laws which pertain to the classification,
training, certification and selling of slaves as market items,
however, are clearly under merchant law.
On slave trade, it is said
that most of the elements of merchant law which cover this specialty
were born of the slave wars, a series of wars which occurred among
various cities in the middle latitudes of Gor, off and on, over
a period of approximately a generation. These wars, although more
than likely involving more than the taking of women, did result
in mass slaving operations and so it is written, that out of these
wars grew much of the merchant law pertaining to slaves as well
as some of the criteria for the standardization of the female slave
as a commodity. Laws pertaining to the rights for certification
and the standardization of criteria for such certification are matters
of merchant law. Slave
trade, however, is but one market in a sea of markets, all of which
are subject to the regulations of merchant law.
The scales used by merchants,
for example, are calibrated by using a stone which is standardized
and calibrated by using the official 'Stone' kept at the Sardar.
A similar rule exists for all 'official' measurements used in trade.
The Weight
and the Stone, incidentally, are standardized throughout the Gorean
cities by Merchant Law, the only common body of law existing among
the cities. The official "Stone," actually a solid metal
cylinder, is kept, by the way, near the Sardar. Four times a year,
on a given day in each of the four great fairs held annually near
the Sardar, it is brought forth with scales, that merchants from
whatever city may test their own standard "Stone" against
it.
As in the case of the official "Stone", so, too, at the
Sardar is a metal rod, which determines the Merchant Foot, or Gorean
foot, as I have called it.
---Raiders of Gor
, 127-128
Merchant law has managed,
then, to stabilize a number of aspects of merchanting and trade
and to be sure the reader finds that this progresses as the series
moves forward. Items which are likely to be found in markets all
over Gor such as cattle, precious metals, stones and slaves, will
of course be easier to legislate than items more specific to a small
area or specific culture. And of course bartering and trade remain
methods by which many chose to -shop-, making the markets difficult
to level, depending on the demand for a particular item and the
availibility of said particular item within a specific area. As
for most markets, the cost of things will fluctuate with demand
as well as the difficulties encountered in aquiring said item.
Merchant law has been unsuccessful,
as yet, in introducing such things as patents and copyrights on
Gor. Such things do exist in municipal law on Gor but the jurisdictions
involved are, of course, local.
---Magicians of Gor
, p 394
Merchant law provides the
rules by which certification and pedigrees will be produced, the
registering of breeds and lineage information for cattle, domestic
animals as well as slaves. The breeding of slaves is subject to
a number of conditions as is the manner in which the children of
slaves are treated and/or handled. In most cities a child born to
a slave is also slave even if the child was conceinved by a free
man. Free men wishing to have free chidren born of their slave girls,
are said to temporarily free them for the time of childbirth. There
are exceptions of course as with most rules, the city of Tharna
for example, in post-revolt era, modified its laws so that slave
girls may give birth to free persons so long as they were free at
the time of conception. This of course makes the temporary freedom
much shorter.
The youth of Tharna is usually
bred from women temporarily freed for purposes of their conception,
then reenslaved. In Tharnan law a person conceived by a free person
on a free person is considered to be a free person, even if they
are later carried and borne by a slave. In many other cities this
is different, the usual case being that the offspring of a slave
is a slave, and belongs to the mother's owner.
---Vagabonds of Gor
, Ch 26
For the most part, though,
slaves are bred in order to produce more slaves, to perpetuate a
certain trait, or quality, much the same as other cattle.
Slavers are considered a
sub-caste of the merchants although there is mention that the slavers
themselves rather consider themselves to be an independant caste.
The fact is though, that the rules and laws which pertain to the
trade of human property are clearly stated as part of merchant law.
It is interesting to note that although most cities have their own
enslavement laws, merchant law seems to have established a number
of criteria that would be met before a slave is legally a slave
by this law.
It is my
understanding, following merchant law, and Tahari custom,”
I said, “that I am not a slave, for though I am a prisoner,
I have been neither branded nor collared, nor have I performed a
gesture of submission.
---Tribesmen of Gor
, p 196
“You
understand further, of course,” said he, “that under
Gorean merchant law, which is the only law commonly acknowledged
binding between cities, that you stand under separate permissions
of enslavement. First, were you of Ar, it would be my right, could
I be successful, to make of you a slave, for we share no Home Stone.
Secondly, though you speak of yourself as the Lady Elicia of Ar,
of Six Towers, you are, in actuality, Miss Elicia Nevins of the
planet Earth. You are an Earth girl and thus stand within a general
permission of enslavement, fair beauty quarry to any Gorean male
whatsoever.
---Slave Girl of Gor
, p 394
“The
legal point, I think, is interesting. Sometimes, in the fall of
a city, girls who have been enslaved, girls formerly of the now
victorious city, will be freed. Technically, according to Merchant
Law, which serves as the arbiter in such intermunicipal matters,
the girls become briefly the property of their rescuers, else how
could they be freed? Further, according to Merchant Law, the rescuer
has no obligation to free the girl. In having been enslaved she
has lost all claim to her former Home Stone.
---Explorers of Gor
, p 409
Girls such as I must expect
to be marked,” she said. “It is in accord with the recommendations
of merchant law.
---Kajira of Gor
, p 46
You’re going to be
branded,” he said, “and put in a collar.” I regarded
him with disbelief
“But so too, will the other girls,” he said. “You
will all have your brands and collars.
I could not speak.
“Such things are prescribed by merchant law,” he said.
---Dancer of Gor
, p 62
“Some fellows do not
brand their slaves,” I said.
“That is stupid!” she said.
“It is also contrary to the laws of most cities,” I
said, “and to merchant law, as well.
---Vagabonds of Gor, p 188
But her left thigh worn no
brand. Her right thigh, too, as I soon noted, did not wear the slave
mark, nor did her lower left abdomen. These are the three standard
marking places, following the recommendations of Merchant Law, for
the marking of Kajirae, with the left thigh being, in practice,
the overwhelmingly favored brand site.”
Fighting Slave of Gor
, p 312
Merchant magistrates, officers
of the law, are given the duties of law enforcement as well as the
power to prosecute those who are caught breaking the law and applying
whatever sentence is deemed appropriate depending on the nature
of the offense. Permits and the rights to trade or earn a living
by offering entertainment sometimes require the paiement of a fee
such as is seen in festivals, fair and and such.
The representative of the
Merchants, to whom I reported my business, and to whom I paid for
wharfage, asked no questions. He did not even demand the proof of
registration of the Tesephone in Tabor. The Merchants, who control
Lydius, under merchant law, for it is a free port, like Helmutsport,
and Schendi and Bazi, are more interested in having their port heavily
trafficked than strictly policed.
---Hunters of Gor
, p 43
Essentially, merchant law
is guided by the codes of the caste and serves as a consumer protection
system as well as a means to maintain the credibility of the members
of the caste of merchants. By policing their own, merchants manage
to establish and preserve the trust of the customer population.
One would
not wish to buy a girl thinking she was auburn, a rare and muchly
prized hair color on Gor, for example, and then discover later that
she was, say, blond. Against such fraud, needless to say, the law
provides redress. Slavers will take pains in checking out new catches,
or acquisitions, to ascertain the natural color of their hair, one
of the items one expects to find, along with fingerprints and measurements,
and such, on carefully prepared slave papers.
---Vagabonds of Gor, Ch19
Merchant law also allows
for a form of neutral ground in times of conflict, offering goods
and services under an even opportunity system and without having
to be on one or the other side of a conflict.
Various cities, through their
own Merchant Castes, lease land for these stockades and, for their
fees, keep their garrisons, usually men of their own cities, supplied.
The stockades are governed under Merchant Law, legislated and revised,
and upheld, at the Sardar Fairs.
---Captive of Gor
, p 219
He himself
resided, I understood, in Telnus, the capital of Cos, where his
company had its headquarters. His work chains, however, were politically
neutral, understood under merchant law as hirable instruments. They
might, accordingly, and sometimes did, work for both sides in given
conflicts.
---Dancer of Gor, p 322