Day Two of
this.
So. Location 5 on the map is the building for the city's Ministry of Trade and Shipping. (It's a river city of about 170,000 people*. Let's say about half the residents are directly or indirectly connected to creating/exporting goods, and that it takes, on average, 3 people two days to create a widget. This city would be exporting almost 15,000 units of whatever a day. In addition, it is undoubtedly importing things, as well. It has to have a Ministry of Trade and Shipping.)
*8-9 square miles of city. Population density of about 20,000 people per square mile. Population: 170,000.
The Ministry of Trade and Shipping is subordinate to the actual Ministry of Trade and Shipping for the nation, and is overseen by Urraca em Eanes. (Both names are Portugese. The "em" is Portugese for "with," which is a signifier that she is supposed to have a divine ancestor somewhere. People without a documented divine have "sem" --"without"--- as part of their names.I'm still not sure how they'd verify this sort of thing; it seems really likely that, historically, the "em" would be an indication of the strength of arms necessary to defend such a claim as much as anything. [aka, "you don't believe me? Fine, I'll kill you. Anyone else want to argue with me?"] I'm starting to think that this could be a rather unpleasant society.)
The Ministry itself sits on a hill that overlooks the river. It's a three-story wooden building, painted blue. Minister Eanes can see the docks from her office. Many of the surrounding buildings belong to merchants who have cause to visit the Ministry often, and want to be close by.
Edit (12-2-2012): This was originally at location 6, but I decided that 5 was better.