JANUS ECONOMICS & Multi-Cap Corp

Okay the following is the corrected original Economic Profile: I feel I can tweak this...<div><br /></div><div>Multi-Cap Corp fits nicely into a SF setting and the system it is using sounds like something a big company would do, basically Janus is a Corporation Planet.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Since I am thinking Pre-Frontier the <b style="background-color: #ffffff">Recon-Development and Exploration Council </b><span style="background-color: #ffffff">could be a race specific Council or an early multi-race pooling of exploration resources, perhaps funded by several Corporations. PGC would be part of this but not all of it in an early time line I would think.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff">I think the majority of the first paragraph will need to be changed all the Centralized government stuff needs to go, though I did note it is not near the main travel paths, so it could be placed further off. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-weight: bold" class="Apple-style-span">Free Trade Federation </span><b> </b>I think this can be salvaged as a Free Trade Agreement between the races, not a real Federation but more of a treaty agreement between the Core 4 in the very early days of trade, exploration & colonization.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span">F</span><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span">ederation Board of Inquiry</span><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span"> I think this should be changed to Free Trade Council Board of Inquiry... basically I can imagine competitors and civil rights folks accusing Multi-Cap Corp of enslaving the population of Janus as a means to gain access to Janus. But I can also see the charges failing as Multi-Cap Corp is probably doing exactly what PGC did on New Pale minus the native labor. Basically the foxes in charge won't find another fox guilty, if it means they could latter be charged with the same crime too, with a real financial loss involved. Sure they will use it as a PR slander campaign against a competitor but not really go in for the hard kill as they would be cutting their own throats too.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span">The Member Corporations and Governments that signed the FTA would have some sort of councils to resolve disputes, concerns, negotiate and help facilitate trade among members. In all reality the FTC would not have power unless the majority of members wanted a problem resolved.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span">Another point of intrest is the use of water to transport crops, reminds me of Tom Sawyer days. So modern River Boats would be moving up and down the rivers, or across lakes. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span">Smuggling, illegal extract making would be issues for law enforcement and Multi-Cap Corp.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #ffffff" class="Apple-style-span">Note the Robot tech is not as good as the supposably less intelligent Woolies. That means more primitive robotics I would think #1 and #2 maybe Woolies aren't that dumb. </span></div><div>

<p class="MsoNormal"><b>ECONOMIC PROFILE AND DEVELOPMENT:</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Janus was discovered over a century and a half ago by
exploration ships of <span style="background-color: #00ff00" class="Apple-style-span">the old Recon-Development and Exploration Council. It was
briefly cataloged, and forgotten, along with a thousand other worlds “explored”
by the last bloated wave of centralized bureaucracy. After the fall of
Centralization and the development of the Laterial Federation, planetary
development was opened officially. Due to its location off the mainstream of
galactic travel, Janus and most other Sol-Type worlds along the spiral were
virtually ignored during the boom and bust periods of exploration and
exploitation that followed the creation of the Free Trade Federation.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>About sixty years ago Janus was again touched by galactic
travelers when the trading ship “Borderline” crashed in the southern
hemisphere. The owner<span> </span>and
commander of the ship was Jerry Tatum, who was also the discoverer of the Tatum
Plant, whose leaves made an almost universal pain killer and a good antiseptic.
Since then the production of Tatum-leaves have become the primary product of
Janus and its principle source of export income.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Tantum and his crew were also the discoverers of the
planet’s inhabitants, dubbed “Wollies”. These creatures are bipeds covered with
shaggy fur standing about six and a half to seven feet tall. The civilization
of these people is described as nomadic and semi-tribal, although some larger
tribal units of relative stability have been observed, primarily on the northern
continent. Their intelligence in galactic terms has been tested as very low,
and their survival potential as a race on Janus judged as low.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>CURRENT ECONOMIC PROFILE:</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>The economy of Janus depends almost entirely on the growth
and export of Tatum leaves, from which a base is extracted to be made into
painkillers and antiseptics. Due to this situation, the real economic power on
Janus rests with the Multi-Cap Corporation, a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm
with galactic distribution, and whose directors realized early on the potential
sales to be gained from exploiting Tatum leaves.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Multi-Cap functions as the real governing power on Janus,
although there is a rudimentary parliamentary system, and a planetary-based
police force which is roughly equivalent to the Sol-Type sheriff system used by
many asteroid belt mining communities. Multi-Cp company police appear to be the
real law enforcement power of planetary affairs.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Multi-Cap has developed large tracts of the southern
hemisphere, and administers it in the following manner: Tatum Plants are grown
on extensive plantations. Land tracts are apportioned by Multi-Cap, which picks
the owners of each tract, helps the owner with financing, clearing the land,
equipment purchases and the other set-up costs. These plantations are settled
along major waterways in order to secure cheap and reliable transportation for
movement of the harvested Tatum leaves.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>A plantation system is established with the owners of the
plantations in debt to Multi-Cap for development capital and dependent on
Multi-Cap for control of the land itself. Multi-Cap agrees to buy all the Tatum
leaf produced and offers settlers a reasonable price, not neglecting the profit
margin they stand to make from the product when it is refined and sold off
planet. For security reasons, no Tatum leaf extract is refined on Janus itself.
[Speculation—that this helps maintain the firm control Multi-Cap holds over the
plantation owners and develops an even greater dependence on Multi-Cap’s
purchasing power.]</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>The labor to actually plant, weed and harvest the Tatum
Plant is provided by the Woolies. Use of Woolies as labor appears to be a
mutually exploitive system. That is, the growing and harvesting of vast acreage
of Tatum-Plants would be impossible without a source of cheap, effective labor
able to make independent decisions beyond the capability of programmed robot
labor.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>The plantation system appears to be a salvation for the
Woolies themselves. The planet is over run with a host of natural predicators,
both animal and plant, and most of these predators feed on Woolies, whose
function in the ecology appears to be roughly equivalent to that of rabbits in
Sol-Type Normal worlds.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>The lack of large tribal or clan connections, or more than
elementary civilization development, make the Woolies a poor long-range choice
to emerge as a dominant species on Janus were it not for the intervention of
other intelligent species, specifically, the advent of the Multi-Cap
Corporation and plantation system.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>In return for working the plantations the Woolies receive
free food, free housing, free medical treatment, and trade privileges as
payment. Woolies do not appear to fully understand the term “payment for wages”
or the concept of labor being valuable. However, they are willing to work the
plantations in return for such implements as knives, spears, trinkets, and
primitive weapons such as bows. Apparently the primary consideration from the
viewpoint of the Woolies is security. There are no predators within the
boundaries of the plantations (except for occasional intervening creatures
which break thru the security perimeters), which means Woolies can raise
families and live a peaceful existence without the fear of imminent death. The
second consideration is medical attention, which they regard as some sort of
god-magic provided by the generous out-worlders. They do not regard free food
or housing as any benefit at all, since in their natural state food and housing
is relatively “free” anyway.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Investigation eleven years ago by a <span style="background-color: #00ff00" class="Apple-style-span">Federation Board of
Inquiry</span> reveals that the system utilized by Multi-Cap does not constitute
slavery, voluntary or otherwise, and from all appearances the Woolies
themselves, as well as the plantation owners, are happy with the situation
which places them at the disposal of Multi-Cap. The system appears to be
uniquely fitted for exploiting the only real economic potential available on
Janus in the best and most efficient way possible.</b></p>

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