What luxury product (or extremely small number of different ones...

Antibiotics

Bankers.

Not clocks, cheese, wine, chocolate, mercenaries and iron?

Salt

>>Hardmode: why wouldn’t any stronger and bigger nation conquer it for that?
>Because the wine nation is still wealthy enough to give at least some casualties on the stronger nation.
>Plus, since only rich people buy their wine, it makes them a less attractive target to stronger nations as a war could stop the production of it for a long time.
Also unless you enslave the vintiers then you won't actually get any more wine out of them.

>Also unless you enslave the vintiers then you won't actually get any more wine out of them.
Is that really an obstacle for a country that’s already gone through the trouble of conquering another for its wine?

Purple dye.
Silk.
Products which require highly skilled craftsmen and are only transmitted through a regional culture, such as a specific kind of pottery or glasswear.

To be honest, the second part is far more interesting then the first, there could be so many different things that fit the bill to make them rich and famous.
Why they are still aren't conquered is the real question. I can see a few reasons why:
>The small country is extremely defensible, so any war waged against them would be an uphill battle against opponents who know the land.
>They are already a puppet, a satellite, an ally or a friend of a big empire, so nobody else dares to mess with them.
>Everybody around them has more pressing matters. The barbarians are at the gate, or the emperor barely is able to keep internal peace.
>Or maybe it's just not worth it. Why attack your neighbor and be responsible for thousands and thousands of deaths so you can have your McGuffium at slightly better rates?

Yes it is. Population pushed too far could start a rebellion or started terrorist cells. Enjoy your precious vine fields being set on fire and your priceless drinks poisoned by rebels and terrorists. A pissed of peasant could cost you mountains of gold.

Gold.

This. Also gems, and to a lesser extent, silver. For question #2, I suppose the standard answer is that the country is very mountainous/on an island/otherwise unreachable.

In a colab worldbuilding game I was in, my nation had a lake that produced medicinal shrimp.
I could've traded them but didn't really want to share, so I kept it all for myself and nobody but a nation that saved me from destruction could fish for them.

Modern style banking was invented in Holland, not in Switzerland

Look ho that turned out for them.

I see what you did there

Actually Venice profited for a long time from their mirror and clear glass (yes, it's common as dirt today but back then transparent, clear glass goblet was bigger status symbol than silver one) for a pretty long time so it could well fill that role. Or Saxony with porcelain.

Or hell, they could produce high quality steel essential for good arms and armour, and not only no one would dare to attack army where every single soldier is equipped like elite ones of other states, but they also could deter attacks by offering to arm all enemies of state that dared to attack them...

You wot? Since when it is a luxury article?

Go ask swiss clock makers, I don't know.

Potions. Of all the various countries this one has the amount of skilled workers and fine equipment to not only mass produce more common potions but also create more exquisite ones. The money they get from their craft helps them further refine it, allowing them to make even more money.

As for why nobody had conquered them, well, take a moment and think. This country alone has numerous elixirs of not only healing, but also strength, shape-shifting, energy, and probably even more exotic powers. Fighting them would be a major challenge. Not only that, but it's entirely possible the resulting chaos will kill several of the alchemists and make the rest reluctant to provide anything of real quality, thus permanently damaging their production capacity. Lastly, most of the magical medicine, supplies, and even fertilizer of the other countries comes from this one country. If someone was stupid enough to try and attack them, they would find at least one country willing to send reinforcements.
When you get right down to it, the costs out weigh the benefits.

something technologically advanced or with unobvious production process, machinery is too easy to reverse engineer tho
>Silk
>Gunpowder
>Telescopes
>Glass
>Fine Porcelain
>Premium alcohol (maybe the only nation with the ability to distill stuff)

Or can afford the best mercenary's.

Tobacco, sugar and coffee.
Despite being a "rich" nation, only the elites are actually wealthy. The average farmer is still poor, the land is humid, swampy and disease ridden. Powerful nations would simply not be interested in the land or the people, trading with the elites would simply be a better economic choice.

The other anons have stated it before, but it basically has to be something skill based, something that can't be easily replicated, and more about the actual intelligence, knowledge, and artisan competence of the land's people more so than just a raw resource or something.

Why this is is because if you conquer or bully them not just 'that' nation will get upset, but all of it's importers n' trading partners will get upset because you've just drastically messed with the value of their artisan product. Maybe they can't make it anymore or maybe the quality of the product is put into question because their country isn't "theirs", so who knows what those idiot empire-builders are putting in the wine or the soap now.

But, yeah, artisan goods and services like: Wine (obviously), Cheese, Clocks, Toys, Sweets, Fine Clothing, Soap, Jewelers, Blacksmiths, Woodworkers, and occasionally Doctors.

Oh, for what it's worth: Religious tourism can also have the same effect, but people's desire to conquer you can be incredibly unpredictable and vary wildly. On one hand you're a wealthy state that has "THE CHURCH" or "THE TEMPLE" where all these pilgrims and tourists (both rich and poor) wish to go make a commute to either because they feel obligated or they just want to.. But on the other hand you're a wealth religious state no doubt full of supliferous and eccentric treasures, artifacts, and relics ripe for the plundering of heathens and or people of other religions.
Vikings at one point literally made a living just looting churches of all their Christian gold because it was EASY and it was just THERE.

A long time ago salt used to be super valuable, so it basically was a luxury item. It's like pepper, now no one caresbut it used to be worth something.

Roman soldiers were paid in it.

Gold.

Genetic modifications.

Hardmode: It's too expensive to occupy a world where the trees try to eat you.

Protection from genetic modifications.

-Sugarcane
-Spices/Pepper
-Amber
-Coffee
-Tea
-Tobacco
-Cotton

Coffee, tea, tobacco or some fantasy equivalent
Because the price is cheaper than the cost of invading/conquering/occupying the territory and it's a heavily fortified/adverse terrain/ful lof psychopathic mercenaries.

It was valuable but it wasn't a luxury item. It was just relatively expensive.

Pretty well actually up until the 1940s.

>product
A kind of animal, probably a saltwater fish that feeds on a kind of mildly toxic plant.
This fish metabolises it and stores the product in itself.
When you ferment/dry/process the fish you get a mildly hallucinogenic substance which can be either extracted or consumed with the fish.
You actually need the fish to consime the toxon, so you can't just dry the plant.
>conquer
Neither fish nor the location of the nation hold significant strategic value, do they are mostly left alone.

Judean dates were world renowned as well.

After the wars with Rome and the diaspora, the orchards weren't tended well by the new owners. They gradually died out and the cultivar became extinct.

Until recently, when a seed from a garbage pot in the ruins of Masada was germinated at a lab in modern Israel. So now there's one tree.... male, so no dates. :(

This shouldn't be surprised. Egypt was famous as a wheat exporter. The formerly Phoenecian city of Byblos was famous for making and exporting books and paper.

Like another user said, put the city state on an island or in the mountains. Something with a natural border that acts as a speed bump for conquest. Then put that place at a crossroads between three or more empires. It will actually as a buffer state with all the neighbors preferring it to stay independent rather than having it fall into the hands of a rival.

Great idea, and it explains why your fantasy world has less plague and postule-covered people than were around in real history.

Reminder that until the 20th century, the biggest killer in war was disease, not the other army.

>Most of that list got their producing countries into wars over them.
Like an epitome of a bad example.

When you're talking about countries entirely reliant on the export of a handful of extremely precious natural resources, that's kind of inevitable. Usually the whole 'famous and influential' thing involves some form of conflict to reach that point.

Also, OP didn't specify that the resulting state had to be perfectly at peace with everyonee forever.

>This meme again
Finally learn your facts, Veeky Forums. It's getting really annoying after so many years of regulgulating the same shit over and over again

Yes, everybody knows they were paid in vinegar.

Real life: spices, oil
Fantasy: various magical enchanted luxury goods
Sci-Fi: starship fuel

Real luxury products? None.

Something stupidly, infeasibly valuable like Melange might do it.

Because it's a wine made with the waters of the area due to it's unique mineral composition. The Monks who live there and make the wine (and I mean kung fu monks not European Christian monks) defend the area to the death and have the backing of the Emperor as well if shit gets really bad

Peace
Because they'd get their shit kicked in

First, hardmode because that's the easiest bit. Conquering isn't the goal of most nations, kingdoms, empires, or other sovereign bodies. It's expensive. Trade, on the other hand, provides resources and willing expertise. Trade is the norm, barring other political pressures, until the smaller partner gets ahead of themselves and makes the resource more expensive than war would be. Even then many other factors likely make invasion infeasible.

The resource can really be anything that isn't easily produced or attained. Wheat is likely right out, it grows damned near everywhere. Coffee, wine grapes, and olives need a specific climate to grow quality, minerals are geologically restricted, animal resources are only available where the animals thrive, etc. Anything is going to be expensive where it is rare. If a thing is both rare and in demand it is going to be extremely expensive. The more rare and in demand the more expensive.

Spices, porcelain, tin, gold, gems, fur, manufactured goods requiring specific secret knowledge (such as clear glass lenses or silk), etc. Basically, if everybody has it nobody will pay extra for it. Otherwise it becomes a valuable export. Some few things are rare enough to provide incalculable wealth.

What are you going to do to enforce quality standards with these now enslaved vinters user? Are you going to kill them off if their wine doesn't meet your standards? Great way to run low on vinters that way. Especially with all the easily sabotagable steps along the way. After all it could just be as they state, a bad year. You know, thanks to your armies trampling the shit out of their fields.