The Five Costs of Business
The basics of Economancy are simple to understand. An economancer simply requests a good or service from magic and “purchases” it through currency. However, in order to accomplish this an Economancy must have a keen understanding of what Cecil has deemed “The Five Costs of Business”. Some of these can be subverted or reduced in one way or another, but flippant imbalance of the Five Costs can result in spells that are ineffectual or dangerous.
The Cost of Materials
The Cost of Materials refers to how expensive it is to procure the materials necessary to create the good or action an economancy is attempting to summon. Creating a steel sword for example, requires the market cost of a few kilograms of steel, depending on the size and make of the sword, along with wood or leather for the wraps. This cost can be reduced or removed if the economancer can procure some or all of the materials necessary.
The Cost of Labor
The Cost of Labor refers to how much time and skill it would require a worker to shape the materials into the desired good or service. If it takes a blacksmith an hour to make a sword, it takes an hour’s wage in Cost of Labor. This cost can be reduced depending on the nearest market an economancer is located in. A blacksmith in a small town may charge whatever he pleases, but in the big city he must keep costs near his competition if he hopes to stay in business. Cecil also theorizes this cost could be reduced if the economancer has the skill to accomplish the task his or herself, but has little practical skills to test the theory with.
The Cost of Transportation
The Cost of Transportation refers to how much it would cost to transport a good from the nearest market, or obtain service at one’s location. It can become quite great in remote areas far off from civilization, or areas that are simply difficult to travel through. However, this price can be reduced by simply entering a city, town, or province where business is conducted.
The Cost of Time
After the Costs of Materials, Labor, and Transportation are summed, the Cost of Time is multiplied to the sum. The Cost of Time refers to how quickly the product or service is created. In his papers Cecil typically puts this at 1 for instantaneous creation, but by extending the time to takes to cast an economancy spell a mage can drastically reduce a spell’s overall cost.
The Cost of Taxation/Profits
All businesses exist to make money, and in the realm of economancy magic is no different. Once all factors have been totaled there is an additional 10% cost added to the spell’s total price. Unlike the other four costs of business there is no known way to reduce the Cost of Taxation/Profits.