Basic Economics

[AngryNixon]

1st- I want to make myself clear. When I speak of specialization I am not talking about crafting guilds (anyone can craft anywhere). I am talking about resources. Such as, LL has mineral deposits that are better for goldsmithing than armouring. Therefore, if I live in blackforest I need to visit LL to get those materials. -or- players collect and import those goods to blackforest.
The taxes would be cheaper for goldsmithing goods in blackforest because that city wants to promote the import of those goods. Therefore, goldsmiths would work in LL, the lazy goldsmiths would sell in LL but not make a lot of gil. The more motivated goldsmiths would travel to blackforest, and sell their goods for a better profit.

Are you saying that the tax rates would be high enough in the other two states that they might discourage people from trading there in favour of the third city where the tax rate is more "business friendly" to that particular craft?

I ask because you say that the lazy crafters would sell in LL and not make a lot of gil while the motivated ones would go sell in the other city. If we assume that to be the case than the tax rates must be such that there is a meaningful disparity between the profit you'll make in either city.

The threshold where various people start to care obviously changes but I think at 10% tax rates or less there won't be many people biting.

[Haraldsson]

the lazy crafters would sell in LL and not make a lot of gil while the motivated ones would go sell in the other city. If we assume that to be the case than the tax rates must be such that there is a meaningful disparity between the profit you'll make in either city.

The threshold where various people start to care obviously changes but I think at 10% tax rates or less there won't be many people biting.

Yes. I am saying that LL would have much higher tax rates for goldsmithing because there would be a very large supply of those goods in LL due to the natural resources, but the other two cities would have a much lower tax rate for those goods. Causing more motivated goldsmiths to sell at the other 2 cities.

Souljacker
I do think that the different tax rates would motivate players to disperse items across the game. I'm not talking a nickle, I mean a significant tax rate. Just like real countries (i.e., Norway charges 213% on agricultural imports). So obviously the U.S. doesn't sell corn to Norway, the U.S. sells the corn to Mexico.

You are correct about the amount of players being a large factor. Again in order for this system to work, a high server population is a must. As well as an easier system to list goods.

[Souljacker]

Norway has those taxes because they don't want to import agricultural products for a variety of reasons, not because the global economy is "encouraging" the US to sell our exports elsewhere and spread things "across the world". The analogy doesn't fit and the whole system doesn't make sense. Why would you want to work on goldsmithing, but have to go to a different city to buy goldsmithing items as opposed to where the abundance of supplies are?

What it sounds to me like you are saying is we should tax the location that has the most abundance, and then let people overcharge for things because they had to avoid the tax in one location and instead the players have to pony up the "convenience fee" that will be tacked on to cover the "travel costs" of selling where the lower tax is.

No matter how you slice it, it will not be good for the players nor the population in general. Heavy taxation is never the way to a healthy economy.