Taxation in Baldur's Gate

Entry into Baldur’s Gate comes at a cost—literally. Everyone pays 2 cp to enter the city through either the Basilisk Gate or the Black Dragon Gate. Folk looking to cross through Wyrm's Rock must pay 2 cp apiece if they’re on foot or horse or 1 sp apiece if they’re hauling carts or wagons. Sailors don’t pay a landing tax, but ships do pay 1 gp for any day in which they load or unload cargo.

Everyone who leaves the city with a handcart or carrying a litter pays 1 sp—even if the cargo is nightsoil, goldflow, or trash. Or a person can pay 1 cp to exit “unladen” with whatever goods can be carried in hand or on one’s back.

People exiting with handcarts or litters pay additional taxes based on the amount and the nature of what they carry or haul. Nightsoil carriers pay the lowest taxes, often amounting only to 1 cp more than the usual exit fee. Goldflow is useful for various manufacturing work, so exiting with it costs an additional 3 cp. Trash is judged based on its potential resale value. Those who can’t pay are turned back or have some of what they carry confiscated as payment. Needless to say, many of the Outer City’s poorest residents never see inside the city’s walls.

Inside the city, anyone bringing goods to sell in the Wide, through Black Dragon Gate or Baldur’s Gate, must pay half of what the cost would be to take the merchandise outside the city as a fee for a stall space in the Wide. Thus, to avoid doubling up on fees, merchants try to sell all their goods in the Wide each day, and the last hours before dusk are a frenzy of deal-making.