Although that was how he put it, Vermilion City and Saffron City were actually different, and that difference lay in how Saffron City had prospered. If Vermilion City owed its prosperity to the League's policies, along with its natural advantage as a port city, and the Kanto League had prospered because that was where the Kanto League was headquartered, then Saffron City had prospered entirely through its own efforts.
For a city that was not on the coast, even with some transportation advantages, achieving prosperity was no easy feat. At least, that was what Heath thought. Yet Saffron City had developed step by step from an ordinary city to its current level, earning a reputation as the technological capital of the Kanto Region. The reason was very simple: Silph Co. was based here.
Heath saw nothing wrong with calling Silph Co. the largest company in the Kanto League, and it was very capable, too. Its annual research and development spending was astronomical. Of course, Silph Co. also made plenty of money. Although it later handed over its Poké Ball production patents and technology to the League, it still made a great deal of money, and the new types of Poké Balls it developed brought it considerable returns as well. It could be said that it had earned, in one go, what other companies would make in hundreds or thousands of years.
Still, being too famous was not a good thing for a company either. For one thing, Team Rocket had set its sights on Silph Co. For another, Heath figured the League probably would not leave it alone either. Although Silph Co. knew how to play its cards right, there would naturally still be necessary oversight.
Because of Silph Co., many other technology companies had gathered in Saffron City, giving