Re: [Traveller_TNE] Re: Inter-Planet trade

Thoughts on Agri world trade,

Unless the world is uniformly non seasonal and/or has an unusual crop the harvest season may peak here and there in the course of a "year" but would overall be almost as steady as mining.

The reason being northern crops planting and harvesting in temperate zone would allow 1-2 harvests a season, sub-tropical and tropical would have 3-4 harvests a season and those harvests may be staggered over time due to the nature of the growing cycle for the crops. IE wheat one harvest in temperate zones, winter wheat gets harvested earlier, barley maybe 2 harvests... lettuce, bannanas? etc etc etc.

Further if the crop requires processing such as corn oil, soybean oil, flour, etc that is likely to occur on the Agri world both for simplicity and cost and the finished product would be shipped at a different time than at harvest.

Similar deal for cattle of different kinds.

Also, farmers have these things called Silos where they store the grain for up to a year depending on market conditions. However, during bumper crop years, the capacity to store under shelter is often over whelmed and the crops are stored in the open. In that case they try to sell that portion first. If the farmer can't make a profit (paying for labor, fuel, fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide storage and shipping) they're known to spread the offending crop over the fields to fertilize the next years crop.

Tim

Peter Gray <> wrote:

--- Tim Newman <> wrote:

>
> Just one question. How often would this 1dT/100 people be needed? Is
> that a daily/weekly/yearly average.
>

Its an aggregate flow average for the entire interstellar community. The figure of 1dt/100 people
is the gross average, giving a rough figure of how much interstellar cargo carriage tonnage that
must be built, maintained and is scheduled for regular availability for ANY interstellar polity
during the course of any discrete trade period. Hence the Commonwealth of Deneb has a population
in excess of 2 trillion persons and aliens, and requires about 20 billion tons of shipping
capacity at any given instant. How this amount is broken down into smaller displacements, how many
hulls this yields, how that cargo space is allocated in terms of types of cargo (H2 haulers and
big bulk carriers are significantly different from container freight) how frequently it is in the
maintenance yard, and the ownership structure depends largely upon local conditions.

There are two reasons why I prefer doing things this way: it reflects the fact that trade
fluctuates seasonally (in particular regarding to raw materials trade), and because it forces me
to actually detail the kinds of industries and consumer culture that exists upon an individual
world or, in the case of my campaign, the member federations of the Commonwealth. The figure of
1dt/100 persons would not apply to every world at every time. For example an agricultural world
would need a significant number of massive bulk carriers for its harvest, but probably wouldn't
need them except for a few times per year. An active asteroid belt on the other hand would require
them year round, albeit fewer at a time given the steady nature of mining. High population worlds
require the most in terms of shipping, but because significant differences exist between a high
population world with a atmosphere/hydrosphere/biosphere and one that doesn't, and a significant
difference between a highly advanced stellar world and one that barely scrapes along at early 20th
century industrial technology, differences in degree must be considered. Low population worlds
would probably receive a regular mail run and a few "erratics", small free traders engaged in some
kind of speculative trade; otherwise these worlds are extremely mediocre.

I will agree with you on this, the kind of trade detailed in the rulebooks probably represents
"float" trade that is otherwise available to independent contractors and other bottom feeding
firms. Such trade probably comes with some hefty strings attached, however.

__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com

Yahoo! for Good
Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

T20	Twin traveller	Business traveller
Role playing games	Online role playing games	Role playing games online