He meant trade goods, though they probably would buy some heirloomed straw hats if you had any. Every fief has a unique trade good so for example in Fisdnar it's northern perch and in Curaw it's embroidered hats. You can make one trade good every hour and it costs half the good price you'll see in the part of the strategus action menu that lists the local tax/visiting fee/etc.
To make one you have to be in a fief then go to Craft Items, click select and then choose the trade good at the top of the list. An orange message will pop up saying "Crafting Set" then just click on start. Different types of fiefs are better for doing certain things. Castles have the highest chance (efficiency) for recruiting a troop every hour, villages are best for making trade goods or gear and towns are mediocre at both.
Then to make gold off your trade goods you need to take them to another fief, the higher good price in your selling location the better because that would be the price they're sold for. The further away you take your trade goods from the place where you made them, the bigger distance bonus you'll get too but there's more risk involved moving goods long distance because you could get attacked by other players in the middle of the night. 
In Fisdnar you can make trade goods and they'll pay you gold for them so you don't have to bother with the time/risk involved in transporting them yourself, pm Frank for details if you're interested.
Thank you, this is heprfur information.
Up to now I've been grinding gold through CRPG and crafting weapons and armor to make my warband a little saltier, but I spose we'll need to get into crafting and trading in order to make the real money.
BTW, I noticed that I can only craft gear that my main already owns in CRPG, but I can't craft all of it: only certain items. Will this menu of craftable gear change depending on the village or town I'm in?
In other news, I spectated a siege last night and it was very instructive. It was Kutt (3,000 tickets) Vs. the neutral town of Curaw (7,000 tickets) which I happen to be in right now actually. Kutt was dominating in the early rounds with masterworked gear and clever strategy. They almost capped the final flags, but they couldn't close the deal before they ran out of the superior gear and attrition started to take its toll. Curaw rallied and pushed them back from the walls. By the end of the battle Kutt troops were all naked and scavenging weapons. Also, the comp was able to hire about 2x more mercenaries than Kutt, and I think having more spawnable units made a difference at the end. I don't know actually how that works though...
I frapsed several segments of the battle to show my friend who is starting Strat w/ me. Maybe I will post it on Youtube.
