Could make your own spice garden and make daily use of a spell based on CrHe base 1(Ensure that a plant grows well for the duration of the spell(affecting roughly 10*10 paces)), +1 Touch range, +2 Sun duration, if you have a CrHe mage s/he should be able to cast that even using non-fatigueing spontaneous magic.
Even upgrading duration to +3 Moon keeps it very low, and as long as you grow single year plants, they shouldnt have time to pick up warping or cause warping when used.
Brillant ideas! The mice to cows and the lower level herbam effect ideas, simple and right on target, Thanks folks.
Actually thank everyone for their comments, suggestions, and advice I think I'm learning a bit each time I log on here.
Angado, wizard of Cymril of the Seven Kingdoms
DW - Any Sun duration would almost have to be non-fatiguing, as otherwise Botches would catch up with the mage sooner or later, and quite possibly ruin the project, or worse. (Two chances a day, for how many days until harvest?...) Not to mention the effort, tho', like "the joys" of mundane gardening, I'm sure some magi would be attracted to that.
No, cinnamon is, I believe, from India (or thereabouts) - via the Spice Road (and so named.) (If not "from" India, then "via" India.) I don't think any Westerner would know a cinnamon tree if it fell on them (or quite possibly that cinnamon even ~came~ from trees!)
However, other spices and produce would be known and valuable - black pepper, cardamon and oranges come immediately to mind, depending where you are.
But regardless of whether it's indigenous, if it's known locally then someone is importing it and someone (same or other) is selling it - and they will notice if a massive quantity of cheap competition floods "their" market. That's where that problem lies.
Okay, then small amounts of multiple commodities, perhaps even sold to a merchant at significant discount could be subtle enough to avoid the meddling in mundane affairs issues.
Commodities such as pepper, oranges, exotic animals (peacocks, etc.), herbs or other such renewable items that could be produced by the covenant.
Likewise clever use of spells to augment production of locally occuring materials (firewood, foodstuffs, wool, etc.).
So long as local economy isn't negatively impacted, no embarrassing questions given cause to arise, can't this minefield be negotiated?
With a final level of 5, why shouldnt it be, as i already said.
And furthermore, any decent specialist should have no problem to reach a non-fatigueing level 6 either, meaning, also as i already said, an easy way to cast it with Moon duration.
Otherwise the (hopefully) obvious solution would be a mastered formulaic spell. But i didnt think i would have to spell that out in detail?
Drop the significant discount, otherwise you would raise (mundane) suspicions and (trader) irritation instantly! 
The order is fine with it as long as you can avoid such irritation.
Absolutely.
I dunno, maybe because somebody suggested that it would be acceptable to raise it to Moon duration? Which is NOT level 5?
This ring any bells?...
Which, unless one had a Casting Total of over 50, is now... fatiguing. And that means... (say it with me) botch dice. As I already said.
back atcha.
Otherwise, everything you said was pretty obvious.
Actually Cinnamon is from Ceylon (aka Sri Lanka) and until late 14th century, the europeans had no idea how it grew. There were legends of magical birds that flew off to collect the plan for the arabs. This is the same for many of the other spices which is why they were rare and expensive. The Europeans had no idea what sort of plant created them. They only saw the finished goods.
Thank you, that would seem to indicate that cinnamon, at least, shouldn't be a product grown by western european hermetic magi then. Correct?
What other other avenues would be available? Enchantjng magic nets to increase fishig yield? muto spells to facilitate the mice-to-dairy-cow trick described above?
Any other thoughts or suggestions.
Also, what would be an appropriate level creo herbam spell for enhancing crop yield? Would the bountiful harvest ritual (or whatever its called) from the main book be the low end benchmark?
There were some common spices. IF you are in normandy, You could do well making salt for use inland from the ocean waters. Magic could definately speed the process and if you were careful in not selling too much in any one city, it would be reasonable for an ocean front manner to have supplies. Nutmeg is common, so certain other spices. Thyme for example.
Excellant! Thank you!
That might well be true. But if a magus can buy some cinnamon in a market (which he can in period, I believe) then he can use Intellego magic to find out what it is and where it comes from.
There should be little mystery about what cinnamon is to a magus, if he really wants to know. Of course, whether cinnamon actually grows on a tree or whatever in Mythic Europe is another question.
Probably not. That ritual affects an entire Boundary. If you just want to affect a single plant or maybe a glass house (Room) then the spell will be much lower in magnitude. You can design it in the usual way.
YEah, Bountiful harvest is level 35 because it includes two factors:
- +5 in size modifications
- the minimum level of 20 for ritual (required for year duration).
If you only want a hot house in the covenant of say room size and willing to cast it every month, you can do it without being ritual for level 15. (Base 1, +1 touch, +3 moon, +2 room)
Or you could make a constant effect item.
Note that a courtyard can also qualify as a room.
Okay then. Sounds like creo is going to need to be bolstered along with artes liberales and philosophiae then for ritual work, or just alot of creo and herbam for item creation. (Current character in that saga has huge magic theory score but only single digit scores in each art atm)
Actually item creation may be more efficient use of time, as my character's low art scores are somewhat mitigated by huge magic theory score plus the puissant house ability. (magic theory 12+2 currently)
Again thanks for all the help, its taking me a bit to get into the swing of thing with Ars, but I'm working on it.
Salt is an easy thing to produce magically, but a difficult thing to sell. Rights to salt production were closely guarded by local nobility, who may be annoyed that you are able to produce a superior quality to their own.
Furthermore, cities and nobles placed heavy taxes on salt, often just for passing through on their roads - Munich's origin in 1158 was the site for collecting a toll on the salt road. The gabelle (salt tax) was introduced in the late C13 in France, and was the cause of riots.
As a storyguide I have encouraged my players to consider making salt as a means of income because it is such a rich source of stories; as yet they have discussed it, but not bitten...
Mark
(Possibly because they know you so well?...)
For me, the attraction of Ars is exactly these limitations and considerations. What is appealing is the very fact that it is not a wide open fantasy world where a mage can sell a wand of lightning bolts to anyone with the gold, or burn down a town and only have to dodge the local constabulary (yah, as if that's a threat ), or kill another wizard and ransack their tower and only worry about their friends i[/i]. 
The Code is a strong, coherent and believable moderating force on all actions and considerations, and yet not a supernatural one that actually "prevents" those actions, merely spells out concrete and imminent repercussions (something lacking in many fantasy environments.)
1+1+3=5 Ring a bell? (Base+Touch+Moon)
Ever soooo sorry i made a typo(eternal damnation here i come!). I even said it correctly the first time that you jerked up against...
Maybe you could look at it seriously BEFORE you start shouting like a madman about it?
Sun duration is level 4. Moon duration is level 5.
And yet you prefer being nasty about it rather than take the point?
Considering the Base effect covers 10*10 paces, i doubt you need the Room target unless its a REALLY big room.
Are those modifiers merely level increases? I thought those were magnitude increases... That would mean that several of my spell level calculations are horribly off.