The Human Caravan is at my Trade Depot, now how do I get it to trade?

Question

For reference, I am playing a succession game using version 40d.

So a Trade Caravan showed and then there was immediately a siege. I think most, if not all of the Caravan made it to the trade depot. It certainly looks like they've started unloading their wares (I did get an announcement to that fact early in the siege). When they first showed up I queued up a ton of junk to be hauled to the depot. Now I don't have that option, and I just got a message that the traders will be leaving soon. Any suggestions for what to do? Is deconstructing and rebuilding the Depot likely to help (assuming I can do it fast enough!)?

Answer 1

If I recall correctly, traders will leave if their numbers become to scarce from dying off. Deconstructing the depot will lead to the traders leaving immediately, but without any of their loot. This is an exploit in the game, but not without repercussions — trade profitability is determined by how much the traders bring versus how much they return with. That is, you're responsible for their goods when it's on your land. Even if their caravans are destroyed in a siege, or you take all their goods through the mentioned exploit, the civilization they come from will not be happy.

Answer 2

Deconstructing the Depot will only prevent the Merchants from leaving with any of their stuff (it gets dumped to the ground) - which is a good way to steal from caravans, incidentally.

At any rate, you're not going to be able to trade with that caravan this time, unless you roll back to before they arrived (and allow them to arrive again, etc.)