A question that puzzled me about "Safehold": how exactly Charis managed to became a major trade center, if it was out of continental semaphore network since very beginning?
Data exchange is extremely important for long-range trade. By semaphore chains, any message could be sent across the Safehold continents in just a few days. To send the message through Charis, using dispatch boats? Would took several weeks at best.
So essentially, what merchant would be willing to operate from Charis, considering that it would means he would be locked out of data exchange? Such merchant would inevitably lose competition to the continental-based ones (who could sent messages and get valuable data much more quickly). It may be logical for Charis to be a major trade center for other island nations - who are in the same situation - but clearly not for Haven and Howard. And analogues with Britain wouldn't work here: British trade empire was build long before semaphore telegraph was invented on Earth, and for most of its history, London enjoyed the fastest communications around (dispatch boats, and later undersea telegraph cables). Charis is in completely different position: semaphore telegraph was known on Safehold since Creation, long before Charis had been founded.
