Free City's revenue for September was 534,728 gold narls.
Of that, taxes brought in 312 gold coins; local specialties—Fast Pants, Umbrellas, Waist Cinchers, Lemon Soda, and Soap—brought in 5,563 gold coins, with Lemon Soda and Soap proving so popular they accounted for nearly half that revenue; the Magic Muskets and Magic Cannons purchased by Count Ulmit and Mrs. Orok yielded 6,073 gold coins in profit; and Magic Film brought in 522,780 gold coins.
With the treasury flush, it was time to spend.
First came the Mage Tower. Ingrid purchased nearly 400,000 gold coins' worth of mountain copper—both the Mage Tower and the Floating City needed it to reinforce their structures, and there could never be too much.
Construction on the stalled Mage Tower resumed, giving the mages who had chosen to stay a place to call home.
The remaining 100,000 gold coins would go toward trade with other countries and workers' wages.
This was where Free City differed from other city-states: elsewhere, Harbors, shops, and farmland were controlled behind the scenes by the various Nobles. In Free City, the City Lord's Mansion stood behind that infrastructure.
That was normal enough. City-states all began that way. On Montreal Mountain, for instance, the Golden Families had controlled the market for nearly a century before gradually relinquishing power through deals, mismanagement, corruption, and other pressures.
But Annan had no intention of relinquishing power. At most, he would sell merchants some property and minor businesses that had no bearing on people's livelihoods.
After all, other cities had no way to earn money like Free City did. They could afford to run at a loss, so there was no need to share the profits with greedy Nobles and merchants.
Revenue from When Freedom Knocks kept pouring in. Idelia accelerated theater construction across the land and