Hey, so, I need another pair of eyes on this. The plot is that near a port town there's this island where (supposedly) a witch lives. She calls forth mist, from time to time and shipwreck cargo ships for her cultists to take. They never leave the island so they'd rather just trade what they stole for basic goods which had led to some scumbags making huge profit of of it. The mainlanders buy goods in town, and when the mist settles, they take what they have and set out to the island to trade. The problem is that the islanders are supposed to be very wary of outsiders and I can't figure out how the trade would go down. Right now, the idea is that the islanders put everything on a raft and the mainlanders switch out the goods and then the islanders drag the raft back to be collected. But who are the mainlanders? How do they manage the trade afterwards? Do they pool all their money to buy what they can and then share the profits afterwards? The islanders don't care about profits themselves and trade whatever they steal for the same amount of goods every time which is why it's a gamble for the mainlanders if they'll make a profit or not. I dunno, does this make sense? I feel like I've over analysed this so I'm not sure anymore...
Such a trading system would require a great deal of trust. I can imagine everyone trying to short-change everyone else and equivalent values will be a matter of opinion. Normally a degree of bartering is involved, but here, the islanders would effectively be at the mercy of the mainlanders, having to accept whatever they're given (which wouldn't be much). You could introduce a degree of fear of magic, where the mainlanders offer goods as a tribute, in exchange for blessings and safe passage for their craft. No actual trading would be required then. I imagine the islanders would have a hierarchy and a subsistence economy where they work for their leader who decides how to share the tribute.
Well, if they wreck ships and never leave the island, then anyone who wanted to trade with them would have to go there in a ship. Not sure why anyone would voluntarily sail a ship toward an island where the inhabitants actively wreck ships. Understandable, but if they never leave the island, how are they supposed to acquire the goods they need to live? They would depend on outsiders in that case, so while they could still be wary, they kind of need them. Why bother trading with them, then? Seems like dealing with these islanders is loaded with disincentives. No. It is loaded with inconsistencies and people acting illogically for no reward. Not trying to be harsh here, but it sounds to me like you could solve all your problems by having the islanders leave their island to trade. They could wreck all the ships they want, steal as much stuff as they want, be as wary toward anybody as they want, and--I can't stress this enough--act logically to make the rest of the story happen.
You may be interested in the Sentinelese - the most uncontacted people in the world: https://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/sentinelese And then the wiki article to a list of uncontacted peoples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontacted_peoples What you've describes sounds like a scene or a series of scenes, not an entire story - unless this is a short story? I don't see how this could be a novel. Anyway, why do they need stuff from outside the island? If they've survived for this long alone, then they don't need outside help to live. The shipwrecks should get them other unusual things that they might enjoy/like but that's still different to "need". And if they can get these things for free by wrecking the ships, what incentive do they have to trade? And if they can't live on the island independently, why on earth wouldn't they venture out of the island? People rarely make themselves stay in a place where they actually could not survive without help. Logic dictates that they would travel - they could return and live there, but to actively, intentionally not leave the island where it is impossible to sustain oneself is highly illogical. Now, if they can sustain themselves in the island without help, that eliminates the need to trade. You're gonna need to add some culture and other factors in there to make it make sense. An idea occurred to me. Drugs could be an incentive. If the tribe accepted a gift of cigarettes, for example and then find themselves addicted. This is basically how the Opium War started in Hong Kong and how it eventually became a British colony - not cigarettes but opium in this case.
