I have seen Mr.Merchant, but I do not think he knows where I am, my scout was on top of a mountain and a lonely, scantly clad grunt in blue poped-up. We inmediatly began trading:
I traded Iron working for alphabet and the wheel. I usually don't like trading iron working, but everyone in my part of the continet has it (zulu and romans) and Jack's warrior would eventually reach them, so better me than them. I then traded alphabet to Zulu for 90 gp, again, Jack would have sold it to them eventually.
Then I offered him contact with the zulu and romans, he placed contact with the celts and vikings, I accepted. Immediatly after I discovered the aztecs (6 tiles from where Jack's warrior was!) and traded alphabet for mysticism. Aparently, Jack doesn't have contact with them...lucky me
Then I traded mysticism to the celts for masonry. After that I offered mysticism and masonry to Jack, he said he doesn't have anything to trade them for. So aparently I am two techs ahead of Jack... aparently, I think he's hiding something from me, or he traded with another AI for it, but then I looked thru the AI's and none of the ones that have mysticism and masonry have another tech or more money (to indicate a trade ocurred). Or maybe I really am two techs ahead of him.