A Frontier Barter Economy ?

[tbeard1999]

Aramis,

Years ago I had one of those "Book of Facts" publishers loved to pump out in the late 1800s. IIRC, the particular copy I had dated from just after the Spanish-American War.

Anyway, among the mind-boggling assemblage of facts ranging from kitchen sanitation to the primary exports of Tasmania to a listing of USN officers yearly pay was a one page primer on how to correctly write the types of "checks" you mentioned.

There were a few examples showing all the information that had to be included in a beautiful Palmer Method script.

Most (all?) states have enacted Articles 3 and 4 of the Uniform Commercial Code, which governs "negotiable instruments", of which checks (or cheques) are a class. Under the UCC, here are the requirements for a valid negotiable instrument:

1. The promise or order to pay must be unconditional (i.e, "Pay to the order of...");

2. The payment must be a specific sum of money, although interest may be added to the sum; (i.e. "Five and no/100 credits".

3) The payment must be made on demand or at a definite time;

4) The instrument must not require the person promising payment to perform any act other than paying the money specified;

5) The instrument must be payable to bearer or to order ("Pay to the order of bearer" or "Pay to the order of Bob". If Bob negotiates it (or transfers it to someone else) he endorses the back of it (if he just endorses it, any bearer can negotiate it (a "blank endorsement"); if he writes "pay to the order of Tom" and endorses it, only Tom can negotiate it (a "restricted endorsement")).

Persons other than the original obligor and obligee can become parties to a negotiable instrument. The most common manner in which this is done is by "endorsing" -- placing one's signature on the instrument. An indorsement which transfers the instrument to a specified person is a special indorsement.

The critical thing to note is that there are no requirements that the check be printed, produced on any particular paper or in any particular format.

A check is a subclass of negotiable instrument and is drawn on a particular bank. It's also implied to read "pay to the order of" even if it only says "pay to".

 

[aramis]

Ty:

IIRC, the banking reforms of the 1980's and early 2000's created a subset with clearance requirements of 7 days or less, by including the requirement for the RTN & Account Number, specific formatting, and a not-quite-requirement for the use of magnetic ink for the RTN & account number. Checks which do not follow the format still have to be negotiated, but don't have to be negotiated in that 7 day window.

Negotiable instruments for a tiny colony are going to depend upon how much it is off-world entwined, even if not off-world reliant.

EG: Wasilla, Alaska. Wasilla has lumber, machining, adequate food, and a petrochem well system. It could be self sufficient; it is, however, strongly entwined with other regional and national communities by the bonds of consumerism. Yes, there's a guy in wasilla who can make TV's... and 3 radio techs who can make radios from ground up, including the needed transistor tubes... but due to economic entanglement, the community doesn't use its selfsufficiency.

 

[saundby]

EG: Wasilla, Alaska. Wasilla has lumber, machining, adequate food, and a petrochem well system. It could be self sufficient; it is, however, strongly entwined with other regional and national communities by the bonds of consumerism. Yes, there's a guy in wasilla who can make TV's... and 3 radio techs who can make radios from ground up, including the needed transistor tubes... but due to economic entanglement, the community doesn't use its selfsufficiency.

You make me think of the old kit to make a transistor in a Dixie cup.

 

[kafka47]

Sure there will be pressure from the larger Imperium or whatever power. But, one think we are missing these are entire solar systems...monads in the truest sense of the word. Notwithstanding, I think it is the commercial ties, as Aramis talks about that bind and choke that meters against more autarkies forming in the OTU. Also, whilst, many colonies might want autarky within a few generations of exposure to the larger universe, you can create a class of people who find themselves more interconnected with their neighbours through the creation of common institutions. In the Traveller Universe, the most important of these is the creation of the Starport.

SF has long had a staple of a starport that is very rustic. But, Traveller goes beyond that with most worlds wanting to get that Class A Starport and when they do...I should imagine a whole host of Imperial institutions and laws come into play. Also, I would wonder what role the Navy might play in facilitating integration. There would be a measure of gunboat diplomacy with any wayward colonies. Also, at what point does local worldism take over from an Imperial identity and then with time become an Imperial identity again?**

**Travelling through the former USSR in 1995, I asked many people detailed questions about identity. The best thing that I could find that identity was very confluated thing in the aftermath of the USSR and Eastern Europe. Most only had a passing tie to the new Nation States formed (including in the Baltics & Russia itself), felt somehow interconnected with something called Soviet and felt removed from something called European. Now all that has changed.