Short Economics Introduction
A system consists of multiple worlds (planets, moons, asteroid belts, etc. are all considered worlds for this abstraction). A single government runs a system, and can control the economics through laws, incentives, or direct control. Worlds have zones. Each zone is wilderness, but can be developed to be more useful. Zones can be developed into industries or supporting infrastructure.
Every turn, each zone has an amount of labour available (the 'production' of that zone). Depending on the zone, you can use the labour to generate Raw Materials, or turn Raw Materials into Products. The environment of the world affects the efficiency of industry on the world, but overall a normal zone has a production of 100 goods per turn.
Anything you didn't use at the end of the turn is gone. You can't take it with you. You cannot save up products until you have enough to form a tax set - you either have them by the end of the turn, or you lose them. Likewise, you must either spend taxes or lose them.
The tax making process
| Raw Material | Required per Raw Material |
|---|---|
 Crystals | (1  Crystals Labour) |
 Gasses | (1 Gasses Labour) |
 Information | (1 Information Labour) |
 Metals | (1 Metals Labour) |
 Organics | (1 Organics Labour) |
 Rare Elements | (1 Rares Labour) |
| Product | Required per Product |
 Electronics | 2 Crystals, (1 Electronics Labour) |
 Weapons | 1 Crystals, 1 Gasses, (1 Weapons Labour) |
 Utilities | 2 Gasses, (1 Utilities Labour) |
 Vehicles | 1 Gasses, 1 Metals, (1 Vehicles Labour) |
 Construction Materials | 2 Metals, (1 Con.Mats. Labour) |
 Consumer Goods | 1 Metals, 1 Organics, (1 Con.Goods Labour) |
 Food | 2 Organics, (1 Food Labour) |
 Healthcare Products | 1 Organics, 1 Rare Elements, (1 Health.Prods. Labour) |
 Exotic Matter Devices | 2 Rare Elements, (1 EMD Labour) |
 Research | 1 Rare Elements, 1 Information, (1 Research Labour) |
 Entertainment | 2 Information, (1 Entertainment Labour) |
 ICT Technology | 1 Information, 1 Crystals, (1 ICT Tech. Labour) |
| Set Size | Tax / Set | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1  | ++ |
| 6 | 3 | +++++ |
| 9 | 6 | ++++++++ |
| 12 | 9 | +++++++++++ |
Industry creates raw materials, which are turned into products, which in turn are used to make the population happy, which will generate more taxes. And governments love taxes!
From Raw Materials...
Raw Materials are materials collected from the environment used to create Products. Raw Materials are collected in zones devoted to their production known as 'First Tier Zones'. A First Tier produces a certain amount of raw materials each turn.
..to Products...
Products are produced from Raw Materials and are used by the general population to generate Taxes as well as to produce Special Goods. Raw materials can be developed into products in Second Tier Zones. Second Tier zones produce a certain amount of a product, provided it receives a certain amount and type of raw materials.
...to Taxation!
Taxes are the flow of money into your government. They represent all revenue above and beyond the regular day to day expenses such as paying wages for bureaucrats and the likes. Taxes can be used to upgrade your system, increase trade and build projects of all sorts.
Taxes are generated from sets of Products. A tax set is formed by combining 3, 6, 9 or 12 different products. The following table gives the revenue produced by each of these sizes, and an example of each set size.
Labour?
A good way to think about zone production is to see each zone as generating labour. A Crystals Zone will then generate Crystals Labour, and a Vehicles Zone generates Vehicles Labour.
This labour can then be combined with the right goods to create the final product.
