Economy of Shireroth
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| Currency: | Erb (€), Minor Local Trade Currencies |
| GDP: | €24.807 trillion (1646 AN) ($4,264,229,037,778.313) |
| GDP per Capita | €362,446 (1646 AN) ($6,230) |
| GDP by Sector: |
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| Marketplace | Chamber of Guilds and Factorage |
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| Industries: |
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| Major Industry (% of GDP): | Military (TBC %) |
| Largest Company (Value): | ESB-Jörmungandr Group (TBC €) |
| Labour Force (% of Total Population): | 337,164,658 (TBC %) |
| Labour Force by Sector: |
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| Unemployed (% of Total Population): | 4,152,600 (TBC %) |
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| Budget: | TBC € |
| Budget Surplus or Deficit: | TBC € |
| Inflation Rate: | |
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| Exports: | Military, Community Service Workers |
| Export Partners: | Constancia, Maritime Markets of the Strait of Haifa, Natopia |
| Imports: | Grain, Guest Workers, Opium, Uranium |
| Import Partners: | Caputia, Constancia, Craitland, Florian Republic, Natopia, Raspur Khanate |
| Reserves of Foreign Currency: | |
Shireroth has an upper-middle income mixed economy with strategic areas of the economy dominated by ancient noble families and corporations closely intertwined with the Imperial Government, becoming in effect a covert form of state ownership of the corporations and corporate ownership of the state.
Appropriations and dispossessions over the course of a recent series of civil wars, beginning in the 1630s AN and largely concluded by 1652, saw the redistribution of large swathes of agricultural and forestry land in Goldshire, Elwynn and Western Benacia. In the absence of clear guidance to the contrary, land ownership is primarily divided between the governments of the autonomous Imperial States and the Kaiser for the dominions that constitute the remainder of the Imperial Republic. Outside of this broad bipartite division a process of subinfeudation of fiefs can be observed. Tenures can be hereditary but are not inalienable and can be rescinded by the granting authority. This can make the position of tenant farmers precarious and has harmed agricultural productivity.
The territorial range of the Imperial Republic has made it largely self-sufficient and its deep-rooted xenophobia makes it hostile to outside investment and commerce, excepting a few trusted partners such as Natopia and Constancia. Trade with the wider world tends to be tolerated only when it is conducted through the frequently burned port of Musica or else discreetly through deniable third parties. Traders themselves are generally viewed with suspicion by the Imperial Government and regarded as little better than pirates. Traders attempting to conduct commerce across internal state borders in the Imperial Republic are obliged to register with the Office of Bounties and Factorage while the gibbets hung from the Gates of the Guttuli attest to the fate of those who do attempt to carry on unlicensed interstate commerce. In spite of this smuggling remains endemic and the Imperial Marshals and Auxiliaries scour the countryside in pursuit of those who would cheat the Treasury of the Sacred Bounty.
The Imperial Republic has a large and sophisticated arms industry, capable of designing and manufacturing high-tech military equipment, including gravimetric vehicles, fifth-generation fighter jets, nuclear powered submarines, ballistic missiles and orbital bombardment platforms. By virtue of the SANE alliance the Imperial Republic shares technologies with its close allies and participates in the advanced Natopian space programme via a network of intermeshed contractors and supply chains. Strict export controls govern the more advanced weapons systems and the majority of Shirerithian military hardware released for export takes the form of small arms, the ubiquitous Horjin armoured vehicle and the venerable 80mm field gun.
The psychological shock of the loss of Kildare and the subsequent Sxiro-Jingdaoese Confrontation has permanently distorted the economy of the Imperial Republic away from its feudal and agrarian origins towards the construction of a vast Military-Industrial Complex, only seriously rivalled by the Jingdaoese and the Greater Pallisican Trade Association in the present era.
The focus on rearmament, combined with the vast inequalities in wealth between the nobility and the common citizens and subjects of the Imperial Republic has created enduring social tensions and has limited the growth of a consumer society outside the core East-Benacian metropole of Ardashirshahr-Eliria-Musica-Shirekeep. One estimate placed the eight ruling families of the Imperial Republic in possession of 75% of non-state assets in Shireroth, although this figure was refuted by the Imperial Government and the academics responsible for it dispatched to monasteries in the arctic circle in order to undergo a period of contemplation.
In spite of this, pockets of technological advancement can be found throughout the Imperial Republic, with the Citadel in Caverden being an especially esoteric example.
The Imperial Republic has experienced periodic downturns in economic activity, particularly the Great Slump of 1519–1533 and the Imperial Government itself, struggling with the costs of rearmament, only narrowly avoided insolvency and default in 1641–1643 by withdrawing from the SCUE (Small Commonwealth Unified Economy) and establishing the Office of Bounties and Factorage to dramatically increase its tax intake.
The Imperial Republic increasingly looks towards bathyergon electrical generation, a technology pioneered on the island of Kezan to lessen its dependency upon fossil fuel and scant strategic reserves of fissile materials and to fuel future economic growth in order to head off the potential for internal dissent against the Imperialistic neo-feudal system which has been established under the Ayreon-Kalirion dynasty.
