Quote Originally Posted by Sinan
The theory that merchants in forts make less money is false, I believe.

You can verify that easily by:

1. Put merchant in fort.
2. Hit end turn.
3. Check the income from THAT merchant by right clicking him.
4. Make note of that income.
5. Remove merchant from fort. (hence destroying the fort)
6. Hit End Turn.
7. Move merchant back on resource.
8. Hit End Turn.
9. Check the income from THAT merchant by right clicking him.
10. Make note of that income.
11. Compare the income figures.

I've tested this on the Western bank of the Bosporus, outside Constantinople. Here you find 2 instances of Silk at equal resource value. A merchant in fort (of equal finance skill) made the same as a merchant outside the fort.

The theory that merchants in forts disperse AI merchants may be true in some cases.

However in Constantinople I have seen hordes of AI merchants, no matter, if my merchants were in forts or not. They've even horde-ed Constantinople when all my merchants were in Timbuktu (literally). So it may apply in some cases but did'nt seem to apply in my case.
I don't think the likelihood is that the fort will cause a single merchant to earn less from the resource but perhaps that multiple merchants might have the income split between them.

This, imho would make it much less of an exploit, especially if it worked it out as a percentage of their potential - ie. Two merchants on one resource; one that could gain 100 and one that could gain 50 would gain 75 between them off the shared resource.

Sound fair?