The culture within Carta Bellamarina is surprisingly fluid, and largely plutocratic.  People ask three questions in determining the worth of a person: How much does she have?  Who does she know? What can she accomplish?  Status and influence is thus a thing of great flexibility - most of those rising to influence doing so through successful commercial activity.  Social status is a sort of game, whereby people rank themselves in relation to their peers, aiming to climb relative to those around them and in turn avoid those people climbing faster than they do.  Given Bellamarina’s recent history, service to the guild has become increasingly important in this game.  By strengthening the guild, one is investing in one’s own prosperity.  The ability to demonstrate one’s prosperity is also therefore important in securing social status – the right clothes, the right address, the right gifts all open doors in Carta Bellamarina.