How many subsidized merchants?

[atpollard]

So, the fundamental question, I would think, is how much trade is simply necessary for a planet/system, and then how much of that trade is the market providing.

I look to the price modifiers for trade based on the worlds trade codes (from either the LBB1-3 trade system or the Merchant Prince trade system to identify existing trade routes. If a pair of adjacent worlds generate a net positive modifier IN BOTH DIRECTIONS, then somebody will start a 'milk run' between those two worlds. In other words, there will be sufficient demand to support some routine trade.

Looking at the specific trade items in the basic trade (Book 2, IIRC) for which items can be sold with a net negative price modifier, will help identify typical cargo being exported on that trade run.

The same basic concept should work for any trade system.

 

[whartung]

That can certainly complicate the problem of subsidy.

For example, at some point the local government will no longer actually pay for a ship and a crew, but may well pay fixed, "above" market prices for specific commodities that the planet requires, but for which the market is not mature enough to pay the proper prices for.

Thus subsidy happens at a more micro level than a macro level. Subsidizing prices rather than transport.

A subsidized merchant ship is paid just to make the run -- to cover the gas and losses, to create traffic at all, vs necessarily only supplying specific commodities that the regular market is lacking.

 

[dean]

That can certainly complicate the problem of subsidy.

For example, at some point the local government will no longer actually pay for a ship and a crew, but may well pay fixed, "above" market prices for specific commodities that the planet requires, but for which the market is not mature enough to pay the proper prices for.

Thus subsidy happens at a more micro level than a macro level. Subsidizing prices rather than transport.

A subsidized merchant ship is paid just to make the run -- to cover the gas and losses, to create traffic at all, vs necessarily only supplying specific commodities that the regular market is lacking.

But if a market is lacking a certain commodity, and there is demand, and the ship is able to handle the cargo in sufficient quantities to fill a portion of he demand, then that is probably a good cargo to be in the business of transporting.

That's the beauty of subsidizing a free trader. He has the freedom to adjust to changes in the market. Now, being an entrepreneur, he might get it wrong sometimes, but that's why you require him to front some of the costs up front as an investment - he shouldn't go blowing the deal because he has vested interest.

He might find a Really Good Deal on something and then fill a need back at the homeworld, while making a tidy profit himself. If not, he simply ships the product that he knows will pay the bills, and then keep a sharper eye out the next run.