The castes of the farmers (which includes fishermen, foresters, miners, and all who harvest nature directly) and the merchants (which includes not only traders but artisans of all sorts and members of what we would call the "professions") are socially equal (officially). In practice, of course, this is not so. Merchants are treated as socially superior in cities and towns, farmers in rural areas. Neither of these castes has the clear and obvious internal ranking system found in the castes of the nobles and the priests.

Among the members of the merchant caste, traders tend to rank themselves financially (although considerations of honesty and reliability are also important). Artisans of different sorts and the professionals and providers of services tend to rank themselves by skill, along the lines of "apprentice, assistant, journeyman, adept, and master." "Farmers" seem to have a similar sort of hierarchy. Although the criteria of rank in these castes may seem obscure to outsiders, you may be certain that members of the castes will always know exactly where they stand with respect to each other.