Best location for Merchants' Guild is ?

[Shahed]

Point taken.

The more central it is the faster merchants will get to trading, the faster they will pay themselves off, the faster you return on investment will grow.

Travel time is one factor, but there is another.

It increases the base resource value of the region itself. Naturally the increased skill level merchants will increase the overall revenue of the empire. The increase in local resource value will directly affect the local revenue of the city and hence the overall revenue of the empire.

The local effect of increase in trade of the region itself needs to be taken into account for the overall equation to be valid.

And you know what ?

In a moment of SHEER BRILLIANCE ! ... I got the idea of putting some merchants on ships and sailing them around. I think it'll be faster than walking... *ahem*