Fwurg

[Nehket Aeka]

"Fellow ministers,

I has come to my attention that the Union currently allows special goods to be traded with private parties on the Open Market. I think that this poses a serious security risk. The obvious example is Capital Ships. By allowing such private parties to acquire one or two capital ships, we encourage large corporations and wealthy individuals to maintain their own private army. These armies could easily turn mercenary should their patron fail to pay their salaries on time.

The same holds for . Think for a moment, on the methods used to create the so called 'Extreme Crevasses', or other climatological phenomena. Such volatile goods should not be allowed to fall into the hands of private parties, as they can easily be converted into make-shift weapons.

Furthermore, buying such special goods from non-Union Members entails significant risks as well, such as the risk of buying tampered goods. We do not wish one of our fleets to experience a hyperspace drive malfunction just as another super-power moves their fleets near us.

Therefore, I propose to regulate the Special Goods with the following act.

Special Goods Regulation Act

To protect the Union from external influences, and to maintain peace and order, some dangerous goods are regulated.


1. The following goods are defined as Regulated goods: , , , , , and any future special goods
2. Regulated goods may not be bought or sold on the Open Market.
3. Regulated goods may not be sold to factions that are not Union Members
   1. Exceptions to this clause can be made either by vote, or by unanimous approval of the Cabinet
4. Regulated goods may not be bought from factions that are not Union Members

Clause 3.a. is added to allow the Cabinet to engage in export-only trade in behalf of the Union.

Are there any objections to this proposal? If not, I will propose the act to the senate in 91, and plan on opening a vote in 93."

[Senator Ardios Eldrilith]

"As minister of commerce I see merit in this proposal. I will let a commission investigate the impact of this proposal. They will investigate the impact that this regulation has on the internal market of the Union and especially the options that it should give for small starting members that consider special goods."

[Senator Mathi-ey C'b'rton of the Divine Fiefdom of Highmons]

"Wouldn't it be wise to include a requirement that these special goods are available at a reasonable price? These laws may allow certain member worlds to block access to certain goods..." the Senator raised as an issue of concern.

[Nehket Aeka]

"I understand your concern, minister. However, what you propose would require us to not only regulate these goods, but also dictate the price at which they must be sold. I feel that that would infringe on the sovereignty of the Union Members.

I believe we should only restrict as much as is necessary to be able to maintain order. I am confident however, that other providers of those goods would arise, should a world decide not to sell their special goods."

[Senator Mathi-ey C'b'rton of the Divine Fiefdom of Highmons]

"My concern is not so much that a good is not available in general, but that the good will not be available to a specific group for political reasons. Such pressures could lead to conflicts, contrary to the goals of this administration. Even if such would never take place, opposing candidates may choose to use hypothetical situations in an undesirable manner, politically speaking."

[Nehket Aeka]

"You raise a good point. How would you suggest to overcome this problem? I do not wish to dictate the prices of the goods, as that goes against my campaign promises.

An interesting question can be raised about this too. How is it possible that these goods are even available on the Open Market? Surely the producers of Holonet Relays, or Hyperspace Nodes are not selling their goods to private parties that only offer a platry payment for such expensive goods.

I do not think that a single party is responsible for such volumes that the good can actually by traded on the Open Market. And to me the prices indicate a significant excess of production... Though it is possible that a hypothetical situation could exist in which political pressure is exerted, but surely this can already be done right now, by withholding these goods from the Open Market?"

((OOC: It seems we have hit one of those annoying IC/OOC discrepancies. The goods on the Open Market need to come from somewhere -- so there must be a few NPCs that actually produce megatonnes of the stuff, otherwise the OM would never be able to sell for prices as low as 5.2 . I have assumed that no goods on the Open Market magically appears, but that in the IC world, they are produced by one of the NPCs and sold to the OM (for no good reason I can think of, but hey, we need to explain it somehow O_o)))

[Senator Ardios Eldrilith]

"The commission has reported its findings on the impact of this proposal.

They said that this proposal will allow for an increase in the prices of special goods. Due to this increase in price the chance that smaller economies will go into the special products business will be 21 % higher. Without the open market there will be some more options for small economies to specialize. The commission thinks that the overall price of special goods will increase and stay higher for quiet some time.

Furthermore they reported two interesting things. First of all there are currently no capital ships available on the open market. It looks like there are no private companies selling capital ships at the moment.

The second point is the current price of hyperspace nodes. It looks like the efficiency of the nodes has recently increased but the price has not increased yet. If the Union is still building new hyperspace lanes I would advice to buy hyperspace nodes now."

[Nehket Aeka]

"I think your numbers on the are misreported values..."

((OOC: The price of hyperspace nodes is an oversight. I have corrected the wiki for the adjustments by Mercury.))