The third channel · run by the Guilds from El Fulcro
Mercado Global de Aurin
En quelques mots
The Mercado Global de Aurin is the only neutral market between the two rival factions, the Zenith and the Nadir. The five Guilds, which belong to neither side, run it from El Fulcro, the midpoint between the two stations. Its toll is high on purpose, and closing a deal there in person costs less.
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No one’s territory, everyone’s toll.
What is the Mercado Global?
The Mercado Global de Aurin is the system’s third trading channel, and the only one neutral by definition. It is run jointly by the 5 Global Guilds, five trade organisations that take no side. They run it from their customs post at El Fulcro, the exact midpoint between the two faction stations.
The other two channels each belong to one side:
- The Gran Subasta is the market of the Zenith, on their station, El Pináculo.
- The Tablón de Trueque is the market of the Nadir, on their station, El Fondeadero.
Why are the two sides’ own markets not enough?
Because the Subasta and the Tablón look like two economies, yet they run on the same engine:
- One currency, Solmera Credits.
- Finite stock: no vendor is bottomless.
- The same Supply Contracts, the jobs the Guilds post to restock their vendors.
- The same limits.
Both factions inherited the same MMU, the fleet’s shared manufacturing technology. They also inherited the same ledger from Solmera, their home galaxy. A credit is worth the same in anyone’s pocket. What changes is the counter, and who stands behind it.
- At El Pináculo you deal with Registrar Petra Sorn. She talks in percentages and demand curves, even in a corridor conversation.
- At El Fondeadero you deal with Tejedora Sable Vunn, the go-between at the Tablón. She carries the value of everything in her head. She makes no secret that her small commission is also how she hears about everything on the station.
Above those two shopfronts, a channel that belonged to nobody was needed. That channel is the Mercado Global.
How do you reach it?
Both stations have a Terminal de Cambio Global. It is one more screen, beside the mission board and the internal market. From it, anyone can list or buy without leaving home.
The Subasta and the Tablón are their own station’s catalogue. The Mercado Global, by contrast, belongs to no station: a Zenith and a Nadir see exactly the same list.
Whoever travels to El Fulcro to close in person pays less. It is the reward for crossing the centre of the system.
What does it cost?
The Mercado Global charges the frontier tariff, a toll on every deal:
- Closing a deal from home costs 22%.
- Closing it in person at El Fulcro costs 15%.
Those seven points are the price of not crossing the system to the exact midpoint between El Pináculo and El Fondeadero. This is how it compares with the other channels:
| Channel | Friction | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Internal auction at El Pináculo | ≈ 13% | Zenith treasury |
| Internal board at El Fondeadero | 0%, plus the Tejedora’s optional commission | — |
| Trading at the other side’s station | Cross surcharge on that station’s rate | Treasury of the host faction |
| Mercado Global, remote | 22% | 12% to the Guilds’ joint fund and 10% withdrawn from circulation |
| Mercado Global, in person at El Fulcro | 15% | 10% to the Guilds’ fund and 5% withdrawn from circulation |
Why is it so expensive?
On purpose. The tariff is higher than the auction’s fee, and far higher than barter. That way each station keeps its own way of trading, which is part of who each faction is.
- At El Pináculo you pay for the safety of escrow. A Nadir listing there is charged an 18% listing fee instead of 8%.
- At El Fondeadero barter goes untaxed. To the Círculo, the assembly that governs the Nadir, taxing it would mean “charging people for helping a neighbour”.
The Mercado Global exists so that trade between the sides is possible and neutral. Nobody designed it to be the cheap option.
Why do the Guilds collect it?
Neither the Zenith nor the Nadir would accept the tariff on their trade with the rival ending up in the other side’s treasury. So the Guilds collect it: the only neutral power both stations recognise.
What they raise comes back. The Guilds’ joint fund pays for the Supply Contracts that restock guild vendors on both stations, equally. So every deal closed at El Fulcro ends up, by a long road, filling warehouses on both sides.
The rest of the tariff simply vanishes. On a remote deal, ten credits in every hundred are destroyed. On an in-person deal, five.
