I could have sworn the author grouped all of these books as the “Liandra Universe”, but google fails me, and as such I put it to you kind folks:
The series I’m trying to identify consisted of various novels, often one-shots or trilogies, that took place in the same fictional universe. Every novel involved, to a greater or lesser extent, an alien species (I believe the only one humanity had come in contact with) that were depicted as short, bronze-skinned humanoids who were massively good traders. Their society was depicted as revolving quite heavily around the idea of maintaining fair balance, and a number of the books involved a human or half-alien child entering the culture and having various adventures therein.
Does this sound remotely close to anything anyone has heard of?