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Protagoras comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 26, chapter 97 - Less Wrong
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In most societies, there was no remotely adequate solution to the problems of tracking reputations and punishing violations of trust for merchants who operated outside the narrow circle of their own communities. So merchants were largely viewed as scammers because they mostly were; nothing naive about it.
Second thought: of course dishonest merchants exist, but it's also true that merchants upset static status arrangements like controlling land being the only important thing.
Evidence that merchants were mostly scammers?
I would think that most merchants were working territories and dealing with the same people repeatedly, but I'm guessing, too.