>>69375863Generally speaking, that would be a gross oversimplification of a global market system. Realistically there would be 3 general categories of good.
Commodities - as in, Foodstuffs, Fuel, Raw Materials, (Including basic refined resources such as metal alloys, slaves, wooden boards, and cloth. This includes Gold and Silver.)
Refined Goods - Highly refined items. Weapons. Ships. Advanced tools. Fine clothing. Arguably would include intellectual resources to, you know, stuff like skilled workers, engineers, scribes, so on so forth.
Luxuries - Things people want because they feel nice. The classic examples are Tea, Spices, and Coffee. Perfumes, Incense, Intoxicants (such as fine wine, opium, and the like). Art, Gems, Pearls could sort of be listed here as well.
Fiat - Essentially, Credit. A promise of payment. A contract that reads "The [insert financial entity here] is to pay to the person presenting this contract a sum of X amount of gold." or "The carrier of this contract is given the privilege to buy Pepper in city Y at a pre-agreed price of Z grams of gold per kilogram of spice."
which is essentially like trading options on spice trade now that i think of it or "The carrier of this contract is owed よ bundles of silk cloth by [enter financial entity here]."
Generally speaking, especially in a setting where trade is well established and considered somewhat stable, it is much easier to carry promises of payment than it is to carry the money itself.
How trade would most likely work is that person X buys commodities A, B, C, D from place よ, then travels to place ゆ where he trades A, B, C, D into commodities and refined goods E, F, G, before going back to place よ. Meanwhile, person Y who bought A, B, C, D from person X trades A, B, C, D into Commodities, Refined Goods, Luxuries, or Fiat H, I, J and sends his underling Z to place や to trade H, I, J into commodities L, M, N, O, P Q. Then the underling ought to come back carrying L, M, N, O, P, Q to place ゆ where they are again traded into E, F, G, and the cycle repeats.
