The market board is usually the last record a buyer sees. Before it, a sack has crossed a gate and lift, a barrel has been opened after storage, or a small remedy bundle has passed an origin check. The final number carries those steps whether the board names them or not.
The grain desk is learning to separate an arrival from a hall weight. The salt arcade has begun showing delivery weight beside the amount left after storage. The remedy row has listed its fixed inspection fee next to recent prices. None of those measures decides a fair price by itself; each gives a buyer a question they can ask with a record in hand.
Copper presents the same problem in another form. A shared weight is easy to compare, while a guild mark may describe a bar more closely. If the board leaves out which measure was used, both systems can claim precision and neither can be checked by a customer who was not at the assay table.
The city should keep these distinctions visible without turning every stall into a ledger office. A short line for method, source weight, and fee would let a buyer compare like with like. Where no measure is settled, the board can say so instead of making an uncertain total look final.
The market does not need one number to hide four different routes. It needs a price that can be followed back to the record, and a record that leaves room for the people who carry, store, and sell the goods.
