Tovar

A tovar is a special form of guild which originated in Yarsell and remains popular in western Niera. It operates similarly to a conglomerate, in that its members are businesses, called "partners", which coordinate work efforts and pool resources. They tend to have a very structured, top-down organizational hierarchy. Only the owner of a partner is considered a member of the tovar. In this way, tovars allow production to be collectivized without transferring ownership to the workers. Tovars are most common in trades dealing with construction and manufacture of large objects (such as wagons) where collectivizing effort allows for a diversity of businesses without the loss of productivity from small workforces.