This is a simple question really; are there any influental merchant families in Cordor? Or is my impression of Cordor as being loosely based on renissance italian city-states completely mistaken?

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"Edwin do this, Edwin do that. Somebody get this jerk a banana!" - Edwin, BG II

Valygar 'Stonesnake' Stark -Human Ranger
Garret Smith - Archer and peddler of deity-statuettes
Dáin Saltbeard - Dwarven sailor and fencer. No, I'm not joking.

to clarify your question, are you asking about better-well-to-do families, or nobility, specifically? There are no longer any noble families in Cordor.

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No, your impression is not at all off the mark. It is, in fact, very accurate. If you peel back a few layers of blatant propaganda, you will notice that the merchant class is Cordor's new "noble caste". Arguably, many of the noble family's of Cordor also had strong mercantile backgrounds or ties, but those families have gone giving way to the nuveau riche.

So to answer your question, yes, there are.

Would any of their names be common knowledge?

_________________
"Edwin do this, Edwin do that. Somebody get this jerk a banana!" - Edwin, BG II

Valygar 'Stonesnake' Stark -Human Ranger
Garret Smith - Archer and peddler of deity-statuettes
Dáin Saltbeard - Dwarven sailor and fencer. No, I'm not joking.

Quite likely, yes.