Economics

LEIGH&CO Economy

Marbles

The LEIGH&CO Economy is built around diamonds as the reference standard. The official currency of the LEIGH&CO economy are marbles. The injection mechanism for currency (how capital is created) is the diamond exchange. At any Central Bank location, LEIGH&CO will buy any quantity of marbles for at least the basic diamond price (BDP). The BDP is currently 160. Further, LEIGH&CO pledges not to change the BDR more than 4 times per year. As of Y2S3, the BDR has never changed.

It is estimated that the there are about 11.4 billion diamonds, worth about M1.82 trillion, of which Survivors have only mined a tiny fraction.

Diamond Exchange

In an earlier time the Central Bank would pay less for diamonds than it would sell them. This created a disadvantaged situation where Survivors were reluctant to exchange their diamonds for marbles knowing that if they needed the diamonds back later, perhaps as materials, they would effectively lose money. That practice was abolished and now the central bank exchanges diamonds at an even rate so that there is no disadvantage to converting diamonds into marbles.

Money / Time Ratio

Diamonds are a fixed non-renewable resource and cannot be created through traditional Technica. Consequently it is possible to fix a time/money standard. LEIGH&CO Statisticians have estimated that a experienced Survivor using efficient techniques and utilizing Fortune III can yield, on average, about 64 diamonds per hour, or M10,240 per hour at a BDP of M160 per diamond.

This can serve as a basis for establishing prices for goods. For example, if a given production technique produces 500 blocks of some type per hour, and and given that the diamond standard is about M10,240 per hour, then 10,240 / 500 = 20.48. So a fair price for the block being produced is probably around M21.

External market factors can distort a price, leading to prices being higher or lower than would otherwise be expected.

In some cases, Survivors will use Technica machines to artificially generate materials. This can depress the price of the a commodity dramatically, since these machines are typically capable of producing materials far faster than individual Survivors can using traditional means. Some examples of blocks which have been farmed using Technica include Bamboo, Cactus, and Iron.

It could be that a Survivor has a surplus of some material for some reason, and is selling it particularly cheaply to get rid of it. Since Survivors are free to set their own prices, Survivors also occasionally "mis-price" items, selling them for "too much" or "too little" relative to this model. In other cases items that should be very valuable are sometimes sold cheaply because there is little market demand.

Emerald Economy

The Emerald economy is the unsanctioned economic system practiced by the Natives. It is also widely used by Isos who do not wish to engage with LEIGH&CO. The typical way to acquire emeralds is by selling goods to merchants located throughout the native villages of New Eden. Although these merchants will purchase a wide variety of goods, they most reliably buy melons, leading some to call this the "Melon Economy".

A typical scenario for an Iso is to build an industrial-sized melon farm, and to harvest and sell the melons to merchants. The resulting emeralds can then be used to purchase a wide array of goods, ranging from food to enchantments.