Economy and Trade

Bulk cargo is most of the trade in the Drift. It pays badly, but everyone needs it.

Ore. Caraphex clades mine most of it. Most ore ships raw to keep costs down.
Grain. Brackenfeld and other Mid farm worlds ship grain, protein blocks and oilseed. Late cargo spoils.
Water and ice. Vellari tugs tow comets and ice chunks to dry worlds, where the ice is cut up and melted. Most fresh water in the Drift started as Vellari ice. Water is sold by the ton at the docks. Ice jackers hit the tows, most of all near Salt Crown.
Fuel. Anything from Serean storm batteries to Pitchmire oil. Cheap fuel wrecks engines, but it is often all a crew can afford.
Building materials. Ceramics, fire bricks, steel beams and composites. Mid and Rim worlds need them after raids and storms.

Risk. Pirates go after bulk freighters because they are slow, predictable and poorly armed. Insurance is expensive and rarely covers the Rim.

Good-paying cargo is what most Free Companies fight over. It pays well because it is dangerous.

Medicine. Vaccines, antibiotics, surgery kits and gene treatments. It spoils fast. Syndicates steal it and resell it at triple the price.
Tech. Ship computers, mining lasers, sensor masts and fine bearings. They carry tracking locks, which makes smuggling them worth the trouble.
Live cargo. Rare animals, test crops and lab organisms. They need care in transit, and sometimes they get loose.
Art. Sculptures, recordings and old relics. Nobody agrees what it is worth or who owns it. Syndicates pay crooked experts to call stolen art clean.

Risk. Hot cargo draws pirates and crooked customs officers. Crews keep quiet about it and keep their guns close.

Steady jobs are rare. Crews and dock workers go from one short job to the next.

Mining. Ore veins run out. Caraphex clades move from site to site.
Harvests. Grain and fish seasons flood the market, then dry up, and workers go unpaid.
Storm seasons. Serean chemical runs peak in storm season, when diving is possible but deadly.
Big contracts. Many jobs depend on yearly deals with big companies or governments. When a deal ends, whole towns lose work.

Result. Layoffs are normal. People live on small savings, loans and family. That keeps labor cheap.

Some goods are only as good as the name behind them. Each species makes something the rest of the galaxy trusts.

Vellari ice. Clean water from real Vellari ice is the good stuff. Cheap water is recycled and tastes of it.
Keth charts. The Keth sell the lane charts most crews use. Syndicates sell fake copies that lead into ambushes.
The Forge mark. Talarq reactor parts with the Forge mark will not blow up on you. Fake Forge parts are a big black market, and they do blow up.
Synthborn record keepers. Many banks hire Synthborn to hold payments and keep the books, because they are hard to bribe.

Why it matters. Knockoffs are everywhere on the Rim. A fake part or a fake chart can kill a crew.

Money moves through a few systems that do not get along.

Core banks. They issue Central Credits, backed by the Authority. Stable, but the fees are high.
Company scrip. Big companies pay some workers in scrip. It works at company stores and nowhere else.
Rim money changers. Syndicates, temples and local councils run their own credit. It is fast and cheap, but it can vanish overnight.

Exchange rates. Rates change every week. Some crews make money hauling cash between systems.

Delays. Bank transfers can take weeks because signals are slow. Most crews want half the pay up front and half on delivery.

Debt runs the Drift.

Why people owe. Passage off-world, a new engine, a hospital stay, a court fight, a bad harvest.
What they put up. Years of work, a family crew, or a share of a ship.
Missing payments. Late payers get blacklisted, lose their ship, or get sentenced to forced work. On the Rim, a work sentence can last a lifetime.
Debt pools. Some Caraphex clades and Vellari houses pool money so members can cover each other. Syndicates try to get into these pools and take them over.
Skipping out. People who run from big debts often end up with a bounty on their heads.

Reality. Few crews are debt-free. Even a good job usually just pays the interest.