VILIS AD BIS PRETII ("Cheap At Twice The Price")

The Merchants Guild, despite being of relatively recent origin, is perhaps one of the largest. Certainly it its members outnumber the Assassins, rival the Thieves, and are perhaps not far off the Seamstresses. The formation of the Guild was triggered by the desire to protect tourists from the Thieves; in fact one particular tourist - Twoflower as detailed in Light Fantastic. The idea blossomed as it meant that money formerly belonging to tourists and citizens of Ankh-Morpork would be directed to the citys merchants rather than the thieves. Burly men were employed to persuade tourists that they were safe and the city was a lovely place to live. They became the second guild to sponsor stamps. This may be down to the possibility of some of the senior officers sharing the same lodge as Mr Spools, and this helped a lot towards a speedy design and production process.

This article will mainly concentrate on the first Merchants Guild stamps, because there is more to write about. However, each other Guild stamp will get a mention with some further information.