Still doing a close-read of the basic ACKS rules and I found a section that I had to chuckle over: the mercantile rules.
Might be mildly gauche of me to ask, but I’m dying to know. Was the GURPS Traveller sourcebook Far Trader by any chance an inspiration for these mechanics?
(I heartily approve if so. As it happens I was the GURPS Traveller Line Editor for a couple of years, and although I didn’t edit Far Trader I was constantly referring back to it while working on later books. What you’ve done here is a very neat application of some of the same ideas, whether it was a direct influence or not.)
While I have a deep fondness for GURPS in my simulation-loving soul, I haven't actually read GURPS Traveller and it was not the inspiration for the mechanics, no. The direct inspirations were Classic Traveller and D&D Gazetteer #9 - Minrothrad Guilds. The latter's influence is particularly strong, although I think the system in ACKS is an improvement.
Interesting, thanks! Might be some parallel development there - the authors of Far Trader were working on bringing some realism and additional depth to the Classic Traveller trade mechanics. Not impossible that they had seen the Minrothrad Guilds book either.