The Iron Scales Assembly
Pelervar/The Iron Scales Assembly
| Motto | Every debt finds its level. |
|---|---|
| Type | Great merchants' guild |
| Authorities | Seats (city level) |
| Ranks | Counter · Ledger-Keeper · Factor · Weighmaster · The Seat |
| Governing body | Congress of Seats (every three years) |
| Ties | The Quiet Ledger |
The Iron Scales Assembly is the great merchants' guild of the Free Cities, regulating certified commerce in the chartered cities: verifying weights and measures, issuing letters of credit, governing import tariffs, and arbitrating the disputes of its members, who by joining surrender the civil courts for the Assembly's own arbitration. In a chartered city, uncertified trade is simply illegal.
Its city authorities are called Seats, beneath whom serve Weighmasters, Factors, Ledger-Keepers, and Counters; there is no single leader, only the Congress of Seats that gathers once every three years. The Assembly insists that it serves commerce, not politics — though plenty quietly doubt it. It keeps close ties to the registrars of the Quiet Ledger, before whom its members swear their oaths, and a cordial but watchful relationship with the Stonemasons.