I believe some changes could be made in future updates such as making it so shops don't have only certain amounts of coins to buy things and I also believe that guards shouldn't take stolen things when you pay off your bounty beacause I was thinking... "How do they know it was stolen?" Just a couple of suggestions.

Shops have a certain amount of coin due to a thing known as the economy. If you invest, they will have more money.

In regard to the stolen items, they will most likely know that they are stolen due to a missing item report. Guards will be on the look out for the stolen items, because people wont just sit there when their stuff gets taken, they'll report to the guards.

I for one am a supporter of the limited gold merchants have. It makes it more realistic.

I can see your point. On the other hand, spending part of a morning fast traveling between 4-5 cities to sell all your loot to the traders there is not my idea of fun.

I realize I can invest in traders and get their amount of money increased, but I put no points in the speech skill since I'd rather use them to increase archery and other skills.

Decisions, decisions lol.