On Commerce And Trade

[Porcupine1981]

I have noticed one thing recently that I am not fully satisfied with, which is the way imports and exports and self-sufficiency work.

The economy and the trade system in SR2020 is set up so that there are several types of generalised goods (agriculture, industrial goods), which are produced in a generalised production facility. So far, so good. There is a certain national demand for this good, and a national production. If the national production is lower, the good is imported, if higher, the surplus is exported. It is thus always possible to satisfy national demand by internal means.

And there is my problem. I will use Germany as an example. There can hardly be any doubt that Germany today (IRL) is capable of fulfilling all its internal demands in every area, for example agriculture. The same can be said for most countries in Western Europe, and in fact the entire world. However, due to increasing global wealth, Germans are eating far more rice today than they were fifty years ago (and somewhat less potatoes), while in South-East Asia, the demand for wheat is increasing. Consequently, countries like Thailand export surplus rice and import wheat while Germany does the opposite.

Machinery (industrial goods) is another such matter. The majority of German machinery (i.e. industrial goods) producers in real life are highly-specialised and very often market leaders in their niche field. Demand for German machinery is global, and the same could be said for American computer chips or Japanese gaming consoles.

My view therefore, is that there should ALWAYS be a certain measure of import and export, even when a country is actually theoretically self-sufficient.

I will propose a mathematical formula later.