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| Probably
| | #REDIRECT [[Office of Bounties and Factorage#Ministry of Trade]] |
| the least important and least successful of Shirerithian ministries,
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| the Ministry of Trade is under [[some sort of curse]] preventing it
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| from ever developing a successful economy.
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| The first Shirerithian to serve in a Minister of Trade-like capacity
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| was [[Tony Au]], although it is not certain that he actually held the
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| modern-day title. He worked with a straightforward supply-side economic
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| system in which he paid officials' salaries and expected the money to
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| create an economy. Although there were some attempts by people to
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| create companies and buy stocks, the money did not change hands often
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| enough to create a functioning system, and certain loopholes in the
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| plan's design allowed some individuals to accumulate massive hoards of
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| money with little effort. The crown of Au's economic effort was the
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| [[Intermicronational Currency Exchange Organization]], which allowed
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| Shireroth's currency, the [[erb]], to be easily exchanged with that of
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| other nations, but the [[ICEO]] collapsed when Au left the country.
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| [[Erik Metzler]] was the next person to make a significant contribution
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| to the Ministry when he created the [[Bank of Shireroth]], a [[PERL]]
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| program allowing for easy automated money transfers. While this made
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| the economy more efficient, it did not change the lack of a functioning
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| system. [[Kaiser Los II]], under the recommendation of [[Patrick
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| Wong]], introduced a [[gift economy]] in which citizens were encouraged
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| to give monetary gifts as rewards to citizens who helped the country.
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| This functioned for about a month, developing so far as to get a system
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| of fines for legal offenses. However, citizens soon lost interest,
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| despite the encouragement of new [[Minister of Trade]] [[Ozarka
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| Monto]].
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| [[Austi Scot]] succeeded Monto as Minister, and returned to an economy
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| similar to Au's, which he called a [[mercantilist]] system. It returned
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| to the old methods of salary, taxation, and calculation, and suffered
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| from the same flaw the old methods had revealed in the old days: it was
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| hard to understand and too dependent on the work of one person. When
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| Austi left Shireroth for personal reasons, the entire system fell
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| apart.
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| [[Scott Alexander]] is the current Minister of Trade, and has suggested
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| a system in which money is linked to political influence. Under the
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| proposal, which would be based on the gift economy, money would allow
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| commoners to wield a low number of [[Landsraad]] votes. The proposal
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| engendered fierce debate which was not fully resolved before the summer
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| slump killed the matter. Alexander is currently looking for a time to
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| reintroduce the proposal.
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| Another exciting development in the Ministry of Trade is [[Gryphon
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| Avocatio]]'s attempts to print [[paper erb]]. Although the distances
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| separating Shirerithian citizens make it unlikely that paper money
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| could be useful in actual trades, if it is created it will make an
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| interesting collector's item and help raise Shirerithians' awareness of
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| attempts at economic progress.
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| [[category:government]]
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