Regarding the Unified Currency Proposal

[Aurangzeb Khan]

While we can all agree that free trade is, like the avoidance of sudden death, generally a good thing and that introducing a universal currency would remove an impediment to attaining that generally good thing I do wonder if now we are going to have to start worrying about such silly things as a balance of trade to make sure that too much capital does not flow out of the realm or that too much of the economic infrastructure passes into foreign hands. We would be entering a new age where money becomes a valuable strategic asset.

I'm not saying that the proposal is a bad one, it isn't, but I think we are going to find that new developments will arise out of this that we may not yet have anticipated. Law of unintended consequences and all that.

[Kaiseress Anandja I]

Sounds fun!

[Leo Fenrir]

Well from the looks of the system I don't think we would have too much to worry about right now. The only incentive that I can currently see to buy from another nation is for military force. Now I'm not quite sure how Orbate or SCIRA or any of those other things work but, from what I gather, it is an internal matter of the nation.

I'm sure we could implement some regulation about a nation's lump sum never exceeding x and if it does then (this should be a clause in the treaty i suppose) the crown account of said nation must spend, spend, spend in other nations.

[Andreas the Wise]

While yes, we would expect the share of currency held by each nation to fluctuate over time, I don't forsee issues unless some extremely big purchases are made by one country or another. And even if it is, with appropriate advertising between nations it shouldn't take long to return things to the status quo. Besides, our military things are incompatible ...

[Kaiseress Anandja I]

I like the idea. Gives us a whole new dimension to work with.

[Leo Fenrir]

On that point (being the incompatible military systems) if one day we were to consider a unified board that managed military for all the nations, we could then have certain nations supplying specific units which would actually force the flow of money between them and would pull in a whole new strategic aspect to the economy.

A bit far fetched, but a thought none the less.

[Andreas the Wise]

Nah, GROWL is quite different conceptually to SCIRA, in how you acquire units, and in when you can fight. And to be honest, I far prefer the GROWL system, but its just not too suitable for Shireroth.

[Shyriath]

but I think we are going to find that new developments will arise out of this that we may not yet have anticipated. Law of unintended consequences and all that.

What will grow? The tree of all things![/obscuregamereference]

I am admittedly a dunce in economic matters beyond the extreme basics, but I have to say I'd be willing to at least give it a try. If it promotes economic development, spiffy; if it fizzles, then at least we tried; and either way a few unintended consequences might be a healthy thing.

As for more nationalistic arguments such as the one advanced in the chamber by the good Duke of Yardistan, I think I'd be more persuaded if we were forced to use some crummy generic name for the currency in everyday life. But for us, it's still the Erb in name; and it's not as if we're deleting all the old erb and starting over, just adding what we have to a common pool, so I would argue that it should be considered the Erb in fact as well.