How do I make a finance specialized city?

[hyn]

I initially thought the coins on the working tiles corresponded to money that goes to treasury (a.k.a. tax money)... but that doesn't seem to be the case; they go to science/culture/wealth. So I was wondering, what determines the tax money you make?

I could understand that improvements like markets and banks give a % boost to this tax money... but where does the base money come from?

I could think of trade routes, and founding of a religion (+1 per city spread).. but what else?

Since I can't seem to found a religion in a city of my choice, all I can do to specialize, AFAIK, is have as many trade routes as possible...

Why can't I choose which city to found it in, anyway? I *HATE* seeing it found in my military production city, for example.

 

[Mercade]

Base money of a city comes from the tiles you work in the city, trade routes, religion, just as you say, but there is more to it.

For the tiles in the city there are two ways to increase your revenues. You can settle near a money generating resource (silver, ...) as working such a tile can yield 5-6 or even more gold on that single tile. A second way to increase money from a tile is to build a cottage on it. This is a new worker action in . A cottage will grow into a hamlet, then a village and finally a town. As its size increases, so will the amount of money you generate from that tile.

You can further increase the city to a financial powerhouse by adding the financial buildings (market, grocery, bank, ...) and wonders (wall street, ...) in those cities.

So there are three steps:

1. Settle near a rich resource (e.g. silver)
2. Make cottages that turn into hamlets, villages and towns over time.
3. Build financial buildings (e.g. market) and wonders (e.g. wall street).

 

[Palantir30]

Why can't I choose which city to found it in, anyway? I *HATE* seeing it found in my military production city, for example.

Best answer I can suggest is not to build military production small wonders until you have all the religion techs. That way you at least know if/where your religious shrines are and can plan relative to them.

Admittedly, that does only work if you dont plan on pumping an army out after you research Literature but before Divine Right, but it's not that long of a time period to wait.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Commerce sources [goes to gold, science or culture depending on slider](tiles, trade routes, palace)

Gold sources (Shrines, Specialists, Spiral Minaret, Wealth production)

So for a 'gold city' thats what you want. Specialists and wealth production being the ones you have control over.

 

[warpstorm]

Coastal cities are also good for commerce.

 

[Philips beard]

You all forgot to mention Merchant specialists and great people living in your cities! They can deliver huge amounts of cash for ya'

I always like to settle my Great Persons in my cities to improve them in different ways...... never spend them for culture bombs, trade missions, completing wonders or tech's, or for Golden Ages, if it's not late in the game........

 

[Panda]

Coastal cities are also good for commerce.

As are cities founded on rivers.

 

[hyn]

Commerce sources [goes to gold, science or culture depending on slider](tiles, trade routes, palace)

Gold sources (Shrines, Specialists, Spiral Minaret, Wealth production)

Thanks for the replies.
Gold directly to my treasury is what I was looking for; just wasn't sure which ones were responsible for them.

I thought market/bank improvements were applied to this Gold source; that clears up my confusion.

So it seems that there is no need at all to specialize in producing Gold (not Commerce which you can adjust with slider) because there are no building improvements that can give a % boost to the base value--correct me if I'm wrong.

Which means It shoudn't matter where the game places my founding place of religion, as long as it's producing Gold and there's no way to boost that base value.

 

[Slimbo]

The game has some confusions about basic commerce, gold and gold...
I'll try to sort it out here, but pls. keep in mind that I'm playing the German version so some translations might add to the confusion

Like Krikki said, income of tiles, trade routes, palace and special ressource bonuse (like incense gold from cathedrals) goes to the basice commerce pool.

Depending of your slider settings you have a basic gold income.
Then the gold bonus of buildings espacially the holy shrine and specialist gold will be added to this gold income.

The result can be boosted by other building (e.g. bank +50%, national wonder wall street +100%). All of these %-bonusses are cumulative (all % bonuses being added and then multiplied with the basic gold income.

An example:
-City has 100 basic commerce (frome trade routes, and tiles).
-Slider is set to 50% gold/science no culture.
-Holy shrine (the holy city special building) has 27 gold income
-1 trader specialist (or merchant dont konw the english translation) (+3 gold)
- 1 marketplace (+25%), 1 grocer (+25%), 1 bank (+50%) and 1 wall street (+100%)

The result:
50 gold (50% slider setting from 100 basic commerce)
+27 gold from buildings (holy shrine)
+3 from specialist
=80 total basic gold income
+200% from buildings (market, grocer, bank, wall street)
= 80 + 200%* 80 = 80 +160 = 240 Gold income to your treasury

So the bottom line:
It is definitly worht to build a special finance city and the holy city is a good place for it, as all % bonus buildings like bank, etc. will increase income from your holy shrine!

On the other hand it is not a bonus to build a science city in your holy city as the income frome the shrine is only boosted by commerce building NOT by any research buildings. (I had to learn this the hard way :-( )

However I tend to have combined science/finance citys as most of the gold/science output both depends on the basic commerce (i.e. mostly tile income).

You can watch this calculation if you move the mouse pointer over the total gold income sum in the upper left corner of the city screen.