What's Being Traded On Those Trade Routes?

[Timerover51]

1. A Water World trading fish and other seafood to a nearby Arid world or one with an atmosphere of A or higher, and a liquid other than water for its hydrographic. H. Beam Piper's Uller would be a good example of the later.

2. An Agricultural World with large quantities of wood trading with a nearby Arid planet or planets which require domes for survival. The following is a quote from Piper's Space Viking.

Every Viking ship had its own carniculture vats, but men tired of carniculture meat, and fresh meat was always in demand.

This quote comes from Piper's Uller Uprising.

where the water tasted like soapsuds and left a crackly film when it dried; where the temperature ranged, from pole to pole, between two hundred and fifty and minus a hundred and fifty Fahrenheit and the Beaufort-scale ran up to thirty; where nothing that ran or swam or grew was fit for a human to eat, and where the people....

3. Asteroid Belts would always be in the market for fresh foods, organic building materials and clothing, and manufactured items of its tech level.

4. You would have a trade in products where they have very limited growing areas, and also organics that cannot be easily or cheaply synthesized. Groatle from Fulacin would be a good example.

5. A Low population planet that maintains a high Technology level through imports, and has trade items to maintain the import flow.

6. Not all planets are equally endowed with resources. Victoria not having a lot of iron and other heavier metals would be an example. A Water World may have very limited land resources, and require a large amount of imports.

7. Alcohol has been mentioned. In Piper's works, Baldur Honey-Rum, Gram Gum-Pear Brandy, and Poictesme melon brandy are all mentioned. Coffee has different flavors depending on soil and growing conditions, making Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee and Kona Coffee from Hawaii highly prized.

8. In a novel that I am working on, the odor of cedar is an extremely effective insect and pest repellent on a nearby planet, making it worth several credit per kilogram of wood. As the same planet is also Arid, smoked salmon is a featured item in the top tier of restaurant, fetching 50 credits for a course, with the importers paying 10 credits a kilogram for it. The tannin in oak is also toxic to the insects and pests, making oak furniture a luxury item. Even water from melted glacial ice commands a premium price on the Arid planet, justifying its transport.

Some planets would require large cargo carriers, and some require smaller ships or more irregular delivery. Basically, give me a subsector to work with and I will tell you where the trade routes are going to be and what is going to be carried. Personally, I think that interstellar trade would work best with a small ship universe, but that is my personal idiosyncrasy.

 

[Maccat]

Melieu Zero

Melieu Zero had some good write ups on trade progression as part of the expansion of the Imperium I thought. From scouts with precious goods, then evolving to harsh emphasis on licensing and royalties for manufacturing. MegaCorps enforcing licensing patent fees and royalties. Add in the TradeWar stuff as well for that matter things get pretty interesting.
I lean toward, due to the extreme over starport issue, where you cann get an annual refit in the middle of nowhere in essence, that a lot of the larger scale trade is just that, major ship components and parts. Have been leaning toward black-box style, where they just swap an engine out then ship it back to the source world.
The listed trade routes as in essence being pocket empires that were granted favourable treatment speaks volumes to me, as well as the whole "current" in OTU naval paradigm of island worlds. The high TL and population worlds seriously have an advantage in terms of production and trade, and to my mind they in essence monopolize the vast majority of other systems. Resource gathering expeditions for their own use and resale and/or distribution.

 

[mike wightman]

Marc's novel adds another interesting dynamic.

The IISS would 'gift' worlds with makers/fusion+ technology, with source code encryption etc. being Imperial propriety.

When the Imperium comes calling a world using this technology joins and pays taxes or loses the ability to use said technology.

 

[Condottiere]

Another sad victim of the Stuxnet Wormhole Virus.

 

[Timerover51]

The CIA World Factbook should give some ideas as to what might be traded as well.

For example, from the listing for Albania.

Under Geography: Natural Resources

petroleum, natural gas, coal, bauxite, chromite, copper, iron ore, nickel, salt, timber, hydropower, arable land

Under Economy:

Exports:

textiles, footwear; asphalt, metals and metallic ores, crude oil; vegetables, fruits, tobacco

Imports:

machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, textiles, chemicals

The link is here, and it can be downloaded.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html

Earlier editions can be found on Project Gutenberg, and also the Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library.

http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org

For anyone interested in Military History, the CARL Digital Library is an absolute treasure trove of data.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Cheese. In the way that every town in europe has their own cheese, I imagine every world has their own cheese.

 

[Condottiere]

More likely alcohol.

Speaking of which, maintaining a still onboard ship seems a popular pastime.

 

[kilemall]

Melieu Zero had some good write ups on trade progression as part of the expansion of the Imperium I thought. From scouts with precious goods, then evolving to harsh emphasis on licensing and royalties for manufacturing. MegaCorps enforcing licensing patent fees and royalties. Add in the TradeWar stuff as well for that matter things get pretty interesting.
I lean toward, due to the extreme over starport issue, where you cann get an annual refit in the middle of nowhere in essence, that a lot of the larger scale trade is just that, major ship components and parts. Have been leaning toward black-box style, where they just swap an engine out then ship it back to the source world.
The listed trade routes as in essence being pocket empires that were granted favourable treatment speaks volumes to me, as well as the whole "current" in OTU naval paradigm of island worlds. The high TL and population worlds seriously have an advantage in terms of production and trade, and to my mind they in essence monopolize the vast majority of other systems. Resource gathering expeditions for their own use and resale and/or distribution.

Far as that is concerned, each subsector should probably be thought of as a pocket empire in terms of trade, only very high value difficult to make or unique to a planet items would make it worth shipping sector-wide or beyond.

 

[Timerover51]

In the Vilis subsector, Spinward Marches, Garda Vilis has an hydrographic percentage of 80, while Vilis has a percentage of 30. Allowing for some ice caps, Vilis has a bit of a water shortage, while Garda Vilis has a clear surplus. Whlie Garda Vilis is not labeled an Agricultural Planet, clearly food is one of the main items going from it to Vilis, especially any kind of sea food, or crop that requires lots of water. The world characteristics of Vilis are very close to that of Craw/Glisten, covered in the article "A Referee's Guide to Planet Building", the only difference being the Dense-Tainted atmosphere on Vilis compared to the Standard-Tainted Atmosphere on Craw. Garda Vilis is size 9, so larger than Earth, and at 20% land area, has only slightly less land mass, so plenty of room for agricultural exports.

Other exports would be wood products, considered a luxury item on Vilis, natural clothing fiber and textiles, think cotton and wool equivalents, natural dyes, and perhaps some pharmaceuticals as well.

I treat the atmospheric taint on Vilis as a combination of atmospheric dust and excessive dryness, leading to lung problems and dehydration. On Garda Vilis, the taint is excessive humidity, leading to the growth of atmospheric-borne mold and fungus in human respiratory systems, while the local fauna has efficient filters to block the mold and fungus out.

Ships capable of more than Jump-1 traveling between Garda Vilis and Vilis pay their landing fees by bringing in large quantities of water as surplus fuel, which is used by the Star Port Authority to produce refined fuel for sale. Refined fuel on Vilis costs 2000 credit per ton, as the ship is removing hydrogen from the planet. Water on Vilis is a highly valuable commodity.

 

[Whipsnade]

Trade is supply and demand. Supply is physical, how many widgets are there to sell and deliver. Demand is mental, based on what people think, feel and/or guess they want.

Trade makes sense when you realize people are nuts.

The next time someone "complains" about interstellar trade in Traveller, we all need to remember what Drakon wrote.

 

[Whipsnade]

H. Beam Piper's Uller would be a good example of the later.

Uller feeds itself, and feeds Niflheim for that matter. There are enough references to defending Terran crops during the uprising to make that clear. Uller most likely imports luxuries like booze and tobacco but most of what is on Schlichten's dinneer plate is grown or raised on Uller.

The flourine planet, Niflheim, is the real prize. The Chartered Uller Company had to take Uller as part of a package deal with the Federation for the Niflheim franchise. The Company is only on Uller because it has to be and not because there's anything of any great worth there. Given the huge size and range of Piper's ships, the Company could ship foodstuffs to Niflheim from damn near anywhere. They just use Uller because it's close, they're stuck with it, and they might as well get some use out of it.

Anyway, trade goods are going to be necessities/essentials, luxuries, and staples in roughly that order. Comparative advantages created by physical and sociological factors are going to determine what goods are produced where and where they're sold.

And no one is going to be schlepping water across a parsec a few hundred dTons at a time when the system in question has gigatons of the stuff in planetoids, KBOs, gas giant moons, rings, comets, and dozens of much closer other objects.