Re: (3273) Trade and Commerce

Rob Dean brought up a topic that I find frustrating. Trade and
commerce. RPG's  don't explain it very well and sf authors don't
write about either (except for a few, of which Jack Vance's Demon
Princes novels offer one of the better explanations but only for
money not credit).

How is credit handled? Credit cards would present major problems
outside of a star system. Who would honor them? Granted the megacor-
porations would have a system for their employees but what about the
average citizen or player characters. Once you've mustered out you're
on your own. I still have problems with the retirement pay. There is
no way to keep track of payments from one system to another.

The same for paying the notes on a starship. What prevents anyone from
saying that they paid their note at their last stop a jump or 2 away.
By the time they could check it out the ship could be gone. Or the
simple fact of a late payment. At the time and distances involved
minor mistakes could have major repercussions.

Well, anyway here's some of my comments on Rob's posting.

> Would we agree that the purpose of a trade system is to allow the
> referee to put enough money into a game to allow the players to
> maintain their own starship?

I wouldn't say this. The trade system is an important part of the
economics of the system. Businesses look at cash flow. When money,
goods & services exchange hands that's when profits are made. The more
money introduced from outside the system the greater the chances of
profit.

> In order to design a new system, I think that it would be necessary to
> set the background with some decisions about Imperial economics.

Definitely. Now how do we do it? Designing the basic mechanics of a
game is relatively easy. It's the background info that requires
detailed research.

> Are planets mostly self-sufficient?

I think they are. However, since there are higher tech level planets
they would need to import the higher tech level goods to support the
high tech level starships that visit and to raise the general tech
level of the planet. Generally the higher the tech level the better
the living conditions so lower level planets would want to become
like their higher level counterparts.

Actually, that needs to be modified a bit. Established planets would
be mostly self sufficient. The newly colonized or mining worlds would
be highly dependent on outside sources because the industrial base
is not yet complete.

> Do 'balance of trade' issues affect individual merchants by making it
> difficult to sell things on backwater worlds with few trade connections
> to gain Imperial money?

Backwater worlds would probably be happy they get visited by starships
and would buy everything they could afford. Most sf literature is
written under this assumption. These planets are not profitable for
the big outfits but are for the little guys, the 'typical' tramp
freighter ships that have lower overhead.

> Do the megacorporations tie up all of the steady trade in items with
> very high profit margins, leaving only occasional deals of this sort
> for the little guys?

I would think this depends upon the particular items and the quantity
involved. If a market produced only a small quantity of something it
probably wouldn't be worth it even if it was very profitable (Piper's
Cosmic Computer novel had a planet that produced brandy that was
very expensive on Terra but they could only sell it to the infrequent
ships that passed through the system and then at a very reduced rate.
They also salvaged military equipment but again couldn't sell it for
what it was worth.)

> Do planets  routinely pass trade-restricting (or trade enhancing)
> legislation?

I think this would depend upon the government type. A Dictatorship
would want to keep the populace ignorant so would enforce strong
import conditions (i.e. keeping all the high tech goods for its own
use).
A more liberal govenment would want to better the conditions of its
citizens and would be probably have less severe import conditions.
But even in this type of system imports would be monitored so as to
lessen the impact upon society.

> I think the answers to all of these questions are probably 'yes',
> but we've never been told so explicitly.

I'll agree with this. I have yet to see a good explanation anywhere
on trade and commerce.

> I think it would also be very nice to get some idea of the volume of
> shipping available in various regions of the Imperium...

I would probably say it is very similar to the conditions today.
Heavy traffic through the main trade routes by the everyone with
lighter traffic to the outlying regions by small subsidiaries or
small independents.
Look at any major city. Planes, for instance. Every airline in the area
has flights into the city so connections can be made. But only the
small airlines service the smaller regional airports.

To pin down actual numbers would take some time. But even in the
Imperium scheduled flights would be an integral component of
communications.

Since there would be frequent flights, one per day per major planet
for the major lines might be appropriate, would necessitate cheaper
travel costs. Travel costs, as they are now, seem to be too high.
Which is another point I find irritating. I would think that the
average or at least the above average citizen would want to take
a cruise offplanet. As it is now it would take a major portion of
a citizens income just for the ticket!

Mike Surman