Trandle's Stand is an Oligarchy that has grow significantly in the last Generation.  Closest to the Free city, the majority of the populous sought refuge here.  The humans felt at home, and the artisans were welcomed with open arms.  The rest, many labourers were needed too.  The city has grown.  The walls, such as they were have been extended out, against the original town's charter, towards the river.  The canal has been widened and more were built.  The best real estate is within the old walls.  The warehouses outside the wall are still built the old way, the entrance one store above the ground, no openings at ground level.  But many of the dwellings do not heed the old ordinance.  

The guilds have changed too.  Small guilds that were unimportant a couple decades ago, now have a lot of pull in the life of the city.  The Guild of Arms, the guild where mercenary companies register formerly the guild of the watch has expanded and grown several times over and now forms the primary defense of the state as well as caravan guards and such.  The Confectionary Guild used to just hold sway over the culinary needs of the city and the acquisition of food stuffs, but now it controls all the food exports to the Empire, meaning it has gained a promotion to the Guild Council that controls the city.  The Weapon and Armour smiths were formerly just a small part of the Smithing guild, but now they have grown to justify separate representation, but they can't because of the original Charter.  There were twenty-four guilds after when the city was founded, Alchemist and healers, Brewer, Notary, Carpenter, Cobbler, Culinary, Glassblowers, Jeweler, leatherworker, Mason, Potter, Smith, Weaver, Fine-arts, Mercenary, Navigator, Cooper, Astrologer, Mages, Thieves, Assassins, Moneychangers, Labourers, and Hunters.

The Inner Council is composed of the six largest earners of the past year and three guilds that keep Trandle's Stand running: the Navigators, Masons, and Astrologers.  The Six typical of the last century were the Brewers, the Smiths, the Jewelers, the Fine Arts, the Mages, and the Leatherworkers.  But in the last couple of decades there have been a few changes after the distruction of the free city of Dhewtudum by the dragon: the Mercenaries, the Coopers, the Moneychangers, the Smiths, the Culinary, and the Notary guilds.  The Guild The Trained Protectors controlled the city watch in the years past, but now they control that and the protection of all caravans and patrols of the outer lands; the recent attacks has given them even more power as they are charging even more.  The Guild of Extraordinary Confections and food stuffs, has expanded its control over farmers and has increased its profits by dealing directly with the Empire.  The Guild of Wheel Wrights, Barrels and Creates, is going through another decade of increased profits as everything that goes to the Empire must be crated and placed in barrel for the journey and the lack of wood products onather the end of the journey means that this is a one way passage and more profit.  The Order of Weights and Balances usually changes money from one currency to the other and back again when they leave; the charge is applied to both transactions, depending on the year, this guild will switch with the Brewers guild.  The Auspicious Order of Contract Writers makes its commission based on the value of the goods that are being contracted— as the prosperity of the city increases, the more money that this guild brings in.  The fee is typically pegged at 1%, but this a measure of all the trade in and out of the city in addition all the contracts written during the course of the year.  The Guild of Ironmonger was always small, but when the Free City

There is a fair amount Conflict within the council chambers because of the long  control of one group out of control now and the new ones in control.  A lot of the taxation rules favoured the old guard and the new are starting to strip power from those guilds.  There is concern that the Culinary Guild has gotten too big and the Smithing guild too.  The City charter says that should any guild exceed 1/6 of the net worth of the city it shall be broken into two or more smaller guilds and should any guild be worth less than a 200 share of the business it will lose charter.  The smithing guild and the culinary guild are both skirting the upper limits of the law and the notary guild is trying to split them up along with the older control guilds, there is some concern that they are inflating the navigator's, mason's and astrologer's guilds to keep their numbers down and buy their support against splitting the guilds.  There is a move to willingly combine the Jewelers, brewers and Fine Arts to form and Artisans guild that would be big enough to gain power of the council.  Meanwhile the Alchemists, Hunters, and the Mages guild are thinking of a similare alliance, but this is all contingent of splitting the largers guilds up into Armourers, Smiths, Weaponers, Confectionary, farmers, Cartographers and Notary guilds.  To defeat the Inner council rulings required a 2/3 guild super majority with atleast 50% of value of trade.  Since 2/3 means 16 guilds and there are 24 and the inner council is nine this has rarely happened now with two builds skirting 1/3 of all the wealth this seems very unlikely.  The permanent members of the council are not affected by these machinations but they are profitting nicely from the wealthiest guilds to keep financial dominance down.  

Guilds:

The Destination Lodge

The Celestial Design Lodge

The Masonic Lodge