Now my understanding of the rules are tangential at best, but the market does seem stronger in mechanic than theme.
It would be pretty easy to frame it as you suggest though, with distant markets being other parts of britain and the ports being a contact in scandewega or whatever.
Maybe when you sell it to a port it’s less selling and more throwing it in the ocean to reclaim land (and then sell the new land for sweet dosh). I feel like I’d need several games to get to grips with what it’s trying to portray here.
