The trader has to move the items to and from the Barn to the Trading Post. It's not instant and they can only carry so much. Are you using Mods or vanilla?

If I read it correctly, you did not have enough tool stock in the trading post to make the purchase, so nothing happen. Tool stock in the trading is still 100. Nothing will happen until you click "Trade".

You could: pin the trade window to keep the merchant dock, then
- Trade for one sheep. Wait for the stock to be replenish, then trade for another
- Or increase the stock to 120. Wait for the stock to reach 120. Make the trade.

Thanks for your quick replys!

Originally posted by Mercutio:

The trader has to move the items to and from the Barn to the Trading Post. It's not instant and they can only carry so much. Are you using Mods or vanilla?

Maybe I should have added that I have played Banished for many hours (100+) over the last years and I never had this - or a similar - problem. What I mean to say is, that I - basicly - know, how the game works. About the Trader in particualr, I can see him, walking back and forth with the barrow, transferring the goods - barn and trade post are almost adjacent. He does it with all kind of stuff, just the stupid tools seem to be bugged somehow.
And nope, NO mods.

Originally posted by pdoan8:

If I read it correctly, you did not have enough tool stock in the trading post to make the purchase, so nothing happen. Tool stock in the trading is still 100. Nothing will happen until you click "Trade".

You could: pin the trade window to keep the merchant dock, then
- Trade for one sheep. Wait for the stock to be replenish, then trade for another
- Or increase the stock to 120. Wait for the stock to reach 120. Make the trade.

Got all of them wins pinned, believe me... ;-)

For a) - Tried that, the stock remains at 40...
For b) - Did that, too. Stock remains at 100, even though in the barn are 50+ tools waiting.


Update:
After reading your post I tried something else: I emptied the stock (100) back to the barn, then ordered 120. The trader took 50 to barn, another 50 to the barn. I set desired to 120, he brought in 50, then another 50 and then "disapeared", leaving 57 tools in the barn. So I'm back to my initial 100 in stock - and the merchant has now arrived.


I'm lost... (Edit: Turned out, I was just stupid)

Can you post a screenshot? It's not anything I have experienced before.

So much cringe - so embarrasing...

Problem solved - thanks so much for your efforts, guys - what a great community!

There's nothing wrong with Banished - it's all about "user error". Here is what happened:

I switched the production from Iron to Steel tools, quite a while ago and watched the barn slowly fill up...
The time seemed right to get me some life stock from the merchant, as I aproached 250 tools. However, as you know, the "village window" only shows "Amount of stored tools", but it does NOT differentiate between Iron or Steel tools. Well, after producing around 100 steel tools, stupid me - obviously - somehow fumbled around with the Blacksmiths production setup, unintentionally switching it back to "Iron Tools", thus making it VERY HARD for the poor trader, to deliver STEEL tools to the trading post, as there haven't any more steel tools been produced - just iron ones... (Oh, btw, NO city hall yet, to help me check out such details while, for some reason, I completely ignored the "Barn window" with detailed information)

So sorry for wasting your time - and thanks again.


PS: I had a screenshot ready, but didn't find out, how to attach it.

PPS: If you should wonder, e.g. why there is no town hall in my village, well, I love Banished so much, because I'm allowed to play my very own way - assumingly differing from most other players. My goal is always to have things small and limited, keeping the population around or below 50, but giving my folks lots of diversity in food and stuff, keeping the balance with the environment. Therefore the Church or City hall are kind "late game" buildings...

Just as a side note, steel tools are the worst good to stock in your trader to sell. In fact steel tools are the best product to buy from traders, as the profit value is only 7, with educated workers, otherwise it's a 3 loss value. Also coal is a pain in the rear to stockpile as your villagers keep stealing it for heat instead of firewood. Lastly producing steel tools require finite resources(except logs) which means that even with mines you will still eventually run out, and empty mines still mess up the land so you can't build future buildings on top of the dead space where the mine used to be.

Though at least for mines most of the dead space is inside the mountain which is dead space anyway, quarries are the much greater offender. Speaking of mines, your miners go through your tools like crazy so if you're building mines to get iron and coal to produce steel tools, a lot of your meager profit(again assuming a fully educated workforce) will be eaten by your own tool consumption.

So steel tools are just the worst good to use for trading. The best trading good is wool coats(not warm, wool), with firewood being second best, but until you get your sheep going it will be your best and is still very solid all game long. No other good even comes close, not even ale which is decent enough and a lot of old guides recommend stocking your traders with ale, erroneously so as the above 2 are vastly superior.

Mining coal to produce steel tool to trade is a losing cause. Mining eat up lots of tools.