Greetings Sir Brinn,

I can understand your confusion, Sir Brinn, and hopefully I can help
convey our point of view, and the reasoning that goes into these
price-lists. And let me state that, unlike many public posts, I quote
your words exactly only to frame the question and then respond, not to
mock nor refute them, per se.

"You needn't worry about Nature's worth. Your products will only be
worthless when no one wants them. The act of harvesting a plant or
concocting a elixer does not create value. The fact that Sapience, with
its myriad of consumers, values Nature's herbs, and wants to consume
your elixirs creates it."

This is true. However, I consider our prices to reflect time and effort
spent in the gathering of herbs and in the brewing of concoctions. One
can end up putting a tremendous amount of time and energy into these
pursuits. This list is not an attempt to assess herbs and concoctions
with arbitrary worth, but to most accurately portray the relative time
and effort that goes into gathering and production of herbs and elixirs.

I would argue that market forces themselves give worth to an item.
Limited resources and unlimited want create scarcity, and so price is
the tool to ration these goods and services in the economy. But this are
not entirely relevant to my main point.

"Why does the burden of deciding a 'fair' value fall solely upon the
guilds' or Oakstone's shoulders? Should buyers have no say in how much
they actually care about your products? I care about herbs and elixers
too. Should I have no say in what I think a fair price should be for
these products?"

This is true; it should not fall solely on the guilds' shoulders, and
not at all upon Oakstone's. However, your say as buyers is through your
gold: the only burden that falls on our shoulders is responding to the
realities of the market, as accurately as possible. If we cannot sell an
herb, such a bloodroot, at a given price, we will lower it. This is
demonstrated by the relatively sharp decrease in price for this herb.
Markets are not democratic in the sense of allowing the same type of
obvious voice to producers and consumers, but you have far more say in
the matter than you believe. Now, while you may not have seen these
effects, due to the extremely slow changes in price-lists throughout
history, what you and people like you are willing to buy our products
for has a much larger impact on how we determined the price-list than
any desires we have for pricing.

"Empirical evidence shows that the price of tradecrafts will never fall
to the price of cost, even if you do not fix prices. Forgers still make
profit despite competition. Milkers make profit despite competition.
Bomb makers still make profit despite competition. Jewelers still make
profit despite competition. Clothesmiths still make profit despite
competition. What evidence is there that Nature will be treated unfairly
if it does not suggest sales prices?"

I am not entirely certain how to address this question, because I think
it reveals markedly different ideas of fundamental aspects of the issue.
Let me start, however, by saying that I have, in my life, been an
enchanter, and a forger, as well as a concoctionist, which perhaps gives
me some perspective.

Perhaps the best way of putting it is that with all the professions you
give all require an investment in commodities with set monetary value,
plus a certain degree of manual labour (although I could be wrong, not
being entirely aware of what goes into bomb-making). Harvesting, on the
other hand, is a great deal of walking, searching for, and then, at
last, finding and harvesting an herb. We do indeed have competition:
one, for finding the herbs in the first place, and two, for finding
buyers for those herbs. I would say further on this point, but in doing
so, let me address your next question:

"If these prices are merely recommedations, as some may say, why put
together the effort to make them? Can we not see from our own purchases
and sales how valuable your goods are? What extra information does your
pricelist provide?"

Well, first of all, in once sense these are only recommendations, and in
another sense they are not. First, we do not, nor can we, enforce these
prices on rogue forestals. We do, however, enforce these prices, as
minimums, on our own guild-members to a certain extent (at least I know
we do in the Sylvans; I believe the Sentinels and Druids share similar
practices). Now, this itself creates a reason to change the price-list,
even if it does not immediately demonstrate why we have one in the first
place: if rogue forestals can sell down low at what the market will pay,
we should evaluate whether the change in price is truly justified by
changes in supply and demand, which we have attempted to do.

I must add that we do not require people to sell this low; people will
sell herbs higher, such as was the case with moss. Therefore, this
price-list more accurately reflects what should be a good bargain for an
herb buyer, whereas old price-lists will not.

Why have price floors (the price-list itself)? Though it is true we will
make money in any case, we feel that our time and effort have a certain
worth themself, and the price-list reflects our view of that worth.
Allowing everyone to sell at any price they desire could mean people
willing to sacrifice time and effort to get a quick buck will ultimately
reduce the price for everyone. We do not consider that a laudable goal,
considering it would only achieve greed and profit for a few, instead of
spreading Nature's bounty among its protectors. Whether you consider
that fair is a different matter entirely: I can only try to explain what
I feel the underlying reason for the actions are.

I feel what might be raising hackles the most about this list is the
raising of prices, rather than the lowering. However, the list as a
whole is meant to reflect the relative time and effort spent harvesting
these herbs. This can never be perfect, but we closer approach balance
with this price-list. Many have called for a lower price for herbs such
as bloodroot: if not out loud, than with your refusal to buy it at the
price listed. Since demand with bloodroot did not meet supply, with an
increase in growth and in cavern space, the price went down. However,
other herbs are in higher demand, with little or no increase in supply,
coupled with increased competition for these limited resources. Those
herbs then go up in price.

I hope I answered your questions satisfactorily. In the end, though I
may have many words to say about the sheer economics of the matter, this
is not incredibly important to many forestals. We care about Nature
foremost, and the rewards of Nature's bounty are to be treasured and not
sought for as an end entirely unto itself. When we are harvesting, we
are among our Temples, our glorious Monasteries to the beauty and
splendor--as well as the savagery and ferocity--that is Nature. Not for
us is the forge, the ourobori, the lonely milking chamber.

In the end, Green is far more precious than gold.

-Loak Silvertongue

P.S. I am flattered to be mistaken for guild-master of the Sylvans. Nay,
I am merely a representative of the Sylvan guild in this matter: Ainia
is far too busy working for our guild, for Eleusis, and for Nature to
partake of these matters to such an extent. Also, let me state without
rancor that I do not intend to respond further on public, unless I can
significantly clarify the situation further. I am happy to discuss this
politely with you in person.

Penned by my hand on the 13th of Mayan, in the year 374 AF.