Currently:
Each troop you have can carry 1 trade good.
Having goods above troops result in a loss of speed.
Horses give a speed bonus IF horses > Troop count.
What I propose:
Each troop can carry 1 trade good.
Horses give a speed bonus IF horses > Troop count.
Each horse allows for 1 extra trade good to be carried up to the current number of troops.
Each troop can steer an additional trade horse which can carry another 2 goods
Put a hard cap on the number of trade goods you can carry instead of a speed penalty because it would be physically impossible to carry the extra goods.
With the current troop upkeep, a no upkeep merchant could look like:
49 Troops, 98 Horses, with a carrying capacity of 392 and a speed bonus. <---- Still a decent amount of coin, the distance bonus might have to be lowered to balance that level of trade goods, and crafting would still be very profitable (since people actually have money)
What do you all think?
Bonus Feature: Make the horses carrying capacity based on the riding skill requirement of the horse /2 rounded up