City Musings: Economy

[sythyry]

This is a hard question.  What sort of economic foundation should a Sythyry-built city have?

Assume, arguendo, that the city is floating in the air not too far from Vheshrame --- something like a skyboat, and something like a sky-bridge city (like Oorah Thrassen).  So it will have no natural resources whatever.  It may have quasi-natural resources: I could, for example, build rooms in which one could grow crops, with labor.

I could also, in principle, support the whole city myself -- well, for a small city, a village perhaps.  I don't much want to.  A cityful of sycophants and clients and people who live by accepting gifts from me seems a bit off.  Also I would probably have to spend all my mornings doing high-price enchantments -- as it is, I spend half them doing that sort and half doing ones for fun or emergency -- and that would not please me much.

A city of crafters would work fine.  Oorah Thrassen is somewhat like that.  I can't, however, import a pile of master-whittlers or master-clockmakers or something.  I might be able to find one or two masters who want to move to a new Ketherian citylet and start a guild-chapter and craft-lineage there.  It may take decades to get established, and we will need other things in the meantime.... but this seems like a good long-term approach. What crafts, though?  Of course it depends somewhat on what crafters are available, but I could court, oh, a certain glassmaker, or tailor, or this or that.

I'm sure there's a lot I'm not thinking of, too. 

This will be difficult, I suspect.  I have appreciated your thoughts on other topics; I would appreciate them on this one, perhaps even more.  

Comments

[ragarth.livejournal.com]

I just realized, Sythyry is a zi ri, zie has the power to plan centuries in advance, and a lot of the lower branches are just getting settled and also will be light on gates. Rapid and cheap trade between them and the upper branches would not only be a goldmine now, but once the lower branches become established in a century or two, Sythyria would be a serious trade hub. Ontop of that, hCevian would be invaluable for building gates of maximal distance (locador demons giving hyperspace bypass advice) and Vae would be invaluable in dealing with any outworlders that come sniffing.