Soooo, caravans leave when the trader dies?

Had an imperial trader show up on my tile the other day and got really excited because I had enough silver to buy a monosword or zeushammer. Before even arriving at my colony the trader gets into a social fight with one of his guys and gets beaten to death.

Never really thought about it but I kind of expected caravans to have a heir system or somthing like that. But nope, the other guy gets his wounds tended and the caravan leaves, never to be seen again...