In all, POCKET EMPIRES (and it seems that T5 benefitted from some of those concepts) plus GURPS FAR TRADER plus some of the maintenance rules elsewhere - would (in my opinion) be worth compiling into a single set of rules for use with maintaining a Traveller Universe. There probably wouldn't be a HIGH demand for such a product, which is why it might never see the light of day. On the other hand, someone such as myself willing to take rules from multiple sources and building a hybrid set of rules for my own use is a viable undertaking. It might even be worth turning into its own thread where people propose their own ideas, or build upon what is in the thread, to propose ways of making the rules mesh together in a coherent whole.
It's always been a part that's lacking, modeling the economy. Gross Planetary Product, trade volumes, etc.
On the one hand, we have difficulty imagining interstellar trade at all. At least I do.
Most of our trade is based on one of three broad components: resources, labor, intellectual property. Resources, as in raw materials: ore, oil, agriculture. Labor, where items are manufactured and traded solely because of the cost of production, not because they can't be made someplace else. Intellectual property, basically things that are a competitive advantage and not traded. Things that could be made "anywhere" if they "only knew how" or "were allowed to make them" due to IP laws (patents, copyright, etc.).
With the scope of a typical, mature planet, it's hard to imagine the increased costs of trade are worth it save for the most exotic of items vs something that can be done locally. With an automated workforce, do we really envision "3rd world" star systems in the future that are able to export labor? We could import more "Rare Earth" elements, but how much of that do we really need? How much grain and meat do we need to import vs grow locally?
Clearly, trade happens. But I don't think trade is cheaper or more efficient than local production. Not in the long term. Of course there are edge cases, heavily industrialized and populated world, from which, for whatever reason, populations don't emigrate. Where it's better to pave over yet more land and import agriculture. It's even to imagine that on a small scale (Manhattan Island for example), it's just difficult for me to grasp it at a planetary scale.
For we also have another issue, here on Earth we have instantaneous communication. I can pick up the phone or send an email and have something sent from China tomorrow, and have it here tomorrow. Communication tied with travel will be a hinderance. it won't stop trade, of course, but it certainly will provide a preference to operate locally vs importing something. Gives a motivation for industry to host locally.
So, it's just difficult (for me) to get a real handle on how much trade will happen between worlds. Mind, I also have a problem with why the TL hasn't spread more uniformly. I would think, especially in a Pocket Empire scenario, normalization of TL would be a priority.
We tend to treat planets as countries, and I just don't think that's the right way to do it. The resources of countries are certainly limited (e.g. Japan and fossil fuels), but that's because of artificial borders. But at a planetary scale, that's just not the case. Arguably not all planets had Dinosaurs to convert in to fossil fuels, but by a similar point, by the time we're populating the stars, we'll be beyond fossil fuels.
It would be very interesting to see "Sim-Sector". To come up with models of import and export, modeling demand, seeing economic growth, figuring out GPP. I know how the universe looks when I play 4X games like MOO 2. Garden worlds exporting food, ship building worlds with lots of industry, a few isolated research worlds.
But it would be neat to see a more complicated model than the 2 party model in GT:FT. To try and see how much trade organically develops. See what the real volumes are.
