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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8817713" data-attributes="member: 42582">My understanding is that it is a trade hub. It doesn't make money from industry, it makes money from transaction taxes and service fees. It's an economy based on intermediation. These do exist (although obviously the whole world can't be such a thing). Singapore and Hong Kong are well-known examples. Iceland and Ireland have flirted with the idea. That's before we get to tax haven economies which are more controversial versions of the model.I don't get the impression that the Radiant Citadel is supposed to be an export-based economy. It is a trade hub, isn't it?The function of the taxes is clearly to generate a common fund, which is used to purchase goods for distribution to the citizenry. Provided the volume of trade is sufficiently high, relative to the population of the Citadel, I don't really see what the issue is. I mean, maybe someone can construct an argument from JS Mill or Milton Friedman or even Marx that this can't work, that in the long run it will collapse, etc, but no one worries about that level of detail or analysis for other D&D economies. The basic logic seems clear enough.</blockquote>