You can split things up but without a central trade channel to distribute goods, it will fail every time because individuals aren't going to travel to some far away land just to be a good sport. They are going to stay where they can listen to the shouts, look through what's available, and not be inconvenienced regardless of how much extra gil it costs them. Eventually one city will be decided on by the players as the "best" despite any efforts to tax them to death, and I don't agree that heavy taxation is the way to go. Positive reinforcement works better than negative, after all.

There isn't enough player infrastructure nor interest to mirror a real world distribution network of global resources. One player (or a handful) will simply never have the amount of power to really mirror the real world trade systems where you have a country in need of a certain good that another country can provide. You are likening major corporations to individuals working individually and it simply won't work. Each player is not an Exxon unto himself. We've already seen with the market wards how willing people are to even list in the right ward much less in the right city-state.

The global marketplace works because there is a central backbone where countries can come together to get the goods to the right place for the people, not the other way around. Unless you are suggesting that SE truly build an economy MMO, then we need an AH and we need it linked from the start. There is a reason places like Amazon and Newegg and Ebay thrive - it's because craftsman of all kinds can buy and sell their goods all over the world. That is the future - not me traveling somewhere obscure to get system boards for my next build and then going to another obscure location to sell because I'll save a nickel on the tax and there *might* be enough people of the correct level to desire my goods in that particular area.

Don't lets be silly.