"Free City collected 56 gold Kinnars in taxes in March."
Annan, pinned down on the sofa, looked surprised. "That little?"
"Our Commercial Tax is only ten percent, and a third of the tax revenue comes from Sailors and visitors arriving on merchant ships."
That meant more than 560 gold Kinnars had circulated in March... Not bad for a city of only six thousand residents.
"Free City's trade revenue for March was 2,323 gold Kinnars. Trade with Count Ulmit accounted for 2,000, and the rest came from Fast Pants."
"Revenue from Fast Pants will probably keep dropping, won't it?"
"Yes. All it takes to make them is a few canvas scraps, so plenty of coastal Towns are already copying them. Their prices are about the same as ours... Funny thing is, they call them Fast Pants too."
"If only Faster were a Bard." He might even advance another rank.
"Overseas trade revenue, excluding Magic Film, was 245 gold Kinnars. Nearly all of that came from Diagon Alley."
"What about Magic Film?"
"The figures come in too slowly. We haven't finished tallying February's revenue yet, but it's at 285,000 gold Kinnars."
Magic Film alone covered Free City's expenses.
"Does that include Magic Recording Stone?"
"Yes."
"From now on, count Magic Recording Stone under trade. That'll make box-office revenue easier to track. Also... build another Newspaper Office." Annan had a few plans in mind.
"Are we preparing to publish a Magic Newspaper?" Ingrid asked.
"Not yet."
Anyone with any sense could see how useful a newspaper was for publicity. They would start making their own, just as they had with the Susan Spinning Machine and Fast Pants. The neighboring giants and the Tartun Empire, for example.
Then Annan would get nothing but the title of "inventor."
Annan intended to recreate the Magic Newspaper