Who is the Mysterious Trader?
A "Mysterious Trader" will occasionally appear in the HUD. His appearance always causes a lot of excitement and joy throughout all the kingdoms in Tiny Empires. When he appears, the Trader will ask you for a lot of of gold, but won't say what the gold is for. Definitely pay what he asks if you have the gold, as the Trader is a boon to the players. The Trader can give you a boost in either acres or gold, if played properly. The Trader makes random appearances - usually between every 36 to 72 hours. The Trader has been known to appear more frequently if there were problems with the Tiny Empires servers.
Preparing for the Mysterious Trader
To qualify for a Trader appearance, you need to be at least Baron or Baroness in rank, meaning you have to have at least 25 total acres. The trader is not cheap! His fee is about 2.5 times the value you pay for an acre. For example, if you pay 10,000 gold for an acre, then the Trader will ask you to pay him about 25,000 gold. So, you need to save up gold. You should save up at least 4 times the current value of an acre. This will be enough to pay for the Trader's fee, and keep a reserve to buy acres during the bonus year, if you need to.
When the trader does make an appearance, you should immediately get together with other people from your kingdom. One of the Trader bonuses involves giving away land, and you need to be standing near someone to give away land.
How much advance warning you get until you have to pay the Trader his fee has varied. Originally, the Trader would appear, and then ask for his fee 3 or 4 turns later, giving ample time for the word to go out and for people to get together. This is called the 'Full Warning'. However, that was changed on February 7, 2008, where the Trader appeared with no warning and asked for his fee right away in same turn ('No Warning). That was later changed on February 19, 2008 when he asked for his fee the turn after he had appeared ('1 Month Warning'). In March 2008, the warning times have varied,consisting of mainly Full Warnings. On May 19th, the Trader visitation where the Trader started to visit each kingdom independently instead of the entire empire at once.