Economy of Constancia
| File:Insert Not Erb Currency Image.png | |
| Currency: | Imperial Stater ($) |
| GDP: | TBC $ |
| GDP by Sector: |
|
| Marketplace | |
|
| |
| Industries: |
|
| Major Industry (% of GDP): | Military (TBC %) |
| Largest Company (Value): | ESB Euran Directorate (TBC $) |
| Labour Force (% of Total Population): | 4,740,865 (TBC %) |
| Labour Force by Sector: |
|
| Unemployed (% of Total Population): | TBC (TBC %) |
|
| |
| Budget: | TBC $ |
| Budget Surplus or Deficit: | TBC $ |
| Inflation Rate: | |
|
| |
| Exports: | Gemstones (formerly), artisanal soap, salt, sand, sponges, fish (fresh, salted, dried) and fishery products, uranium (formerly), Nivardom marble, expatriate and migrant workers, Aqaba shore tar-naphtha, scrap-metal, potash, brine, weaponry |
| Export Partners: | Natopia, Shireroth , Kalgachia |
| Imports: | Grain, machinery, chemicals, natural gas, steel, alloys, vehicles, medicine, weaponry |
| Import Partners: | Natopia, Shireroth, |
| Reserves of Foreign Currency: | |
The economy of Constancia is, perhaps barring that of internationally sanctioned Floria, the single most heavily regressed of all surviving nations impacted by the consequences of the War of Lost Brothers and its global aftermath. As such Constancia is one of the few countries of Micras to have gone from a developed to developing economy in the lifetime of its citizens, a consequence of abandoning the former national capital, Vey, and its surrounding agricultural hinterland on the shores of Lake Erik, as the land was rendered uninhabitable during the course of another continent wide conflagration. The evacuations represented catastrophic losses of infrastructure, investments, and population, with more than two million perished and almost a further million unaccounted for. Complete dissolution was only averted by the plunder taken from Iteru, political union with Raspur, and the re-consolidation of the state around the Gulf of Aqaba - sustaining the nation by affording access to the fleets of the Raspur Pact. The Constancian is heavily reliant upon state aid from the allied powers (Natopia and Shireroth), mostly received in the form of material transfers made via the allied theatre command; a fact which has led hostile powers, such as Jingdao to characterise Constancia as being little more than a Shirerithian colony - a claim furiously rejected by its inhabitants.
History
Inter-war period
The economy of Constancia is geared heavily towards reconstruction in the wake of two devastating Euran conflicts and the general dislocation in global trade occasioned by the Alexandrian Flu, War of Lost Brothers, the White Plague, and the consolidation of a hostile and invasive Bassarid polity along the shores of the Sea of Storms.
The major problem at the onset of Primo de Aguilar's ascension to the Autokratocracy was Constancian access to credit, particularly in light of the economic losses suffered in the course of the Euran war. The Free and Associative Kingdom at the time utilised a free currency regime, had minimal tax revenue that accrued to the national government (although all real property was legally held in chief by the Basileus), and had major development needs. By adopting a policy of "Semi- State Capitalism" / "Coordinated Capitalism" combined with a top-down system of "National-Democracy", the Constancian regime sought to create conditions conducive for attracting inward investment by the powerful multinational corporations - such as the ESB Group, Iron Company, and SATCo - which were perceived as the underpinning of the economic system of the SANE (later Raspur Pact) alliance.
The intention of stimulating investment into Constancia also centred around a policy of economic liberalisation with the goal of making the economy more market and service-oriented, stimulating private investment and economic participation by the Euran populace.
These intentions were however widely criticised at the time for seemingly quickly degenerating into a form of crony capitalism wherein government ministers, the Autokrator, and even the royal family themselves, were perceived to be engaged in a monumental programme of self-enrichment through a series of convoluted stock issuances, asset swaps, and buy-outs, most of which seemed to involve, at some point or another, the ESB Group and its Euran or Keltian subsidiaries. All of this occurring while productivity stagnated and the tenuous democratic norms established after the first Euran War were increasingly flouted. The consequence of which would be a reckoning not long in coming for the Primokratíc regime.
Second Euran War: collapse and dislocation
Reconstruction period: the Aqaba-Nivardom axis
Primary sector
Agriculture and fishery
After the destruction and havoc wrought by the Second Euran War, compounded by the aftermath of a world war and the destabilising influences of global pandemics, such as the Alexandrian Flu and the White Plague, and the lingering ecological consequences of the nuclear self-immolation of Babkha in 1598, agriculture on the Euran continent had regressed to the point of collapse - with desertification, salination, and soil contamination, becoming perennial problems.
To stave off collapse, the Permanent Standing Committee (the de facto governing body of Constancia following the war), mandated a corvée of the rural populace in the provinces of Aqaba, Mitra, Nivardom, and Varaz. Rural households would henceforth be organised into communal groupings of ten households under an individual Kyrios ("headman"). These communes became known as the oikoi (singular: oikos) representing the fusion of families, households, and properties into a single collective entity where all forms of production and distribution were controlled directly. Control over production was ensured by the concentration of the means of production (land, tools, and equipment) in the hands of the Kyrios rather than of individual farmers or family members. The headmen were in turn supported by the establishment of a rural police force, the Agrofilaki
Each oikos was mandated to provide the state with one home guardsman and four corvée labourers, assessed and selected by provincial commissioners at annual annual conscription assemblies. Severe penalties and collective punishments, as well as individual material incentives for collaboration, were implemented to ensure that the manpower requirements of the state were met in full. For many the new requirements imposed by the state amounted to a sentence of indentured servitude.
As inhumane as this was, the Permanent Standing Committee deemed the repressive measures necessary so as to ward off societal collapse, the abandonment of the land, and the flight to already overcrowded cities such as Aqaba on the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba. The peasantry was required to be held in place to arrest, with their lives if need be, the encroachment of the desert onto what agricultural land remained, and to push back, to rebuild irrigation systems such as the fabled Babkhan Qanat network of subterranean channels linked back to the giant ancient aquifer beneath Mount Durranian, in what is today the monastic state of Eklesia, and to enclose new lands, scouring contaminated top soil, and bringing the wastes back into productive use.
After some considerable debate, the Permanent Standing Committee came to a consensus that while increases in agricultural yield over the long term would be vital for the prosperity and self-sufficiency of the nation, the immediate priority would be to enclose the land and to purify, stabilise and enrich the soil through the establishment of a network of walled gardens linked to the life-giving waters of the restored qanats. Whilst this work was undertaken, the years after 1670 would be lean ones for the farmers of mainland Eura, fed on a closely rationed diet of fish harvested from the jealously guarded waters of the Gulf of Aqaba, and bulk consignments of rice from Tapfer and the Micras Balkans purchased through SATCo and the Iron Company. Foodstuffs grown locally during this period consisted mostly of millet, which was itself requisitioned by the state and transported to Aqaba for mass fermentation into a millet-beer brewed by a numberless multitude of household producers in the refugee camps on the edge of the city. To this fermented mess is added an infusion of diluted Raspurid opium, typically of grades rejected for export to Shireroth, which creates a concoction known locally as Blood of the Bassarid, which is in turn sold in vast clay vats to the rural oikoi for distribution, especially to the Iteran helots assigned to the estates for whom the drink is both effectively a wage, a foodstuff, and a palliative for their condition.
| Name | Owner | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| . | . | . |
Secondary sector
Textiles
As part of the division of labour, represented by the concentration of rural populations into the okoi communes, women's labour in such labour as cloth making, contributed greatly to the provincial economy. Homespun fabrics, while usually not cost competitive compared to industrially manufactured synthetic textiles, imported in bulk from Benacian and Tapferite markets, represented a revenue generating economic activity with fabric being accepted in lieu of cash payments for the purposes of domestic taxation.
Construction
| Name | Owner | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| . | . | . |
Mining
| Name | Owner | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| . | . | . |
Re-Industrialisation
Tertiary sector
Maritime industry
| Name | Owner | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| . | . | . |
Transportation
| Name | Owner | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| . | . | . |
Education
The preponderant survival of Raspurid foundational educational institutions, compared to their Constancian counterparts, is likely to have an impact in the longer term on the values and organisation of Euran society. An effort to redress this imbalance resulted in the creation of Foundation Schools, after the Modanese model, in late 1670.
| Name | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sarayzenana | Education & Indoctrination Service of Raspur | Est. 1664, Raspur Province, attends to the education of boys born to the Special Breeding Programme until the age of seven and of girls until the age of twelve. |
| Saraymardana | Education & Indoctrination Service of Raspur | Est. 1664, Raspur Province, attends to the education of those boys born to the Special Breeding Programme until the age of twelve. |
| Foundation Schools (Ídryma-Scholeío) |
Ministry for Education | Est 1670, all non-Raspurid provinces, attends to the education of children between the ages of five and ten, imparting the rudiments of writing, numeracy, and loyalty and obedience to the Highest Divinity. Funded by a 4% poll tax. |
| Name | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Dabirestân-e Andarûn | Education & Indoctrination Service of Raspur | Est. 1670, Raspur Province, attends to the education of boys born to the Special Breeding Programme between the ages of twelve and sixteen. |
| Dabirestân-e Pardanashin | Education & Indoctrination Service of Raspur | Est. 1670, Raspur Province, attends to the education of girls born to the Special Breeding Programme between the ages of twelve and sixteen. |
| Name | Owner | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| Akadēmíā Hermetica | Patriarchal Orthodox Faith foundation | Hermetic and scriptural studies for scholars and initiates into the priesthood. Located beyond the walls of Cario, Aqaba Province. |
| Euran University | ESB Group foundation | Est. 1668, ESB Cantonment, Aqaba, Aqaba Province. |
| House of the Learned | ESB-GSC-ICAF joint foundation | Restricted Access Area, Nivardom Province |
Infrastructure
A survey conducted by General Service Corps commissary agent Kalkul Sahib in early spring 1670 confirmed the following items of infrastructure, variously in public or aligned corporate ownership, as remaining intact and operable following the Second Euran War:
- Aqaba - temple, market place, city walls, aqueduct, Ziggurat, stadium, factory, harbour, port facility, airport
- ESB Cantonment - temple, market place, library, city walls, bank, Ziggurat, university, stadium, harbour
- Astérapolis - palace, temple, market place, library, city walls aqueduct, Ziggurat, stadium, sewer system
- Badehshahr - temple, market place, library, city walls, Ziggurat, harbour
- Bandar-e Saghi - temple, marketplace, library, court house, city walls (partially constructed), Ziggurat (partially constructed), harbour
- Cario - temple, market place, library, city walls, stadium, harbour, airport, port facility
- Ithonion - city walls, Ziggurat, harbour, airport, port facility (famine)
- Mehrshahr - courthouse, aqueduct, Ziggurat, stadium, harbour, lighthouse, grand library
- Nissus - city walls, Ziggurat
- Nivardom - city walls, Ziggurat, harbour (famine)
- Trans-Euran Cantonment - marketplace, library, city walls, SAM missile battery (sans missiles), airport, police station
- Níso Aigón - city walls, Ziggurat (ex-Babkhan MilZig, ruined), harbour
- Raspur - court house, city walls, bank, stock exchange, airport, Upper and Lower Ziggurats (famine)
- Shâhibâgh - courthouse, city walls, Ziggurat, harbour
- Aqaba Province - n/a (famine)
- Mitra Province - n/a
- Nivardom Province - n/a
- Varaz Province - marketplace (famine)
Fiscal situation
| Financial Year | GDP (Imp. Staters) |
| 1655 | C$4,712,138,977,578,900.00 |
| 1669 | C$1,258,822,193,055,278.25 |
| 1670 | C$932,981,142,927,412.00 |
| Assets | Special Reserve Staters |
| Bullion / Currency Reserves (1653) | SR$40,506,979,955.68 |
| Bullion / Currency Reserves (1670) | SR$17,231,974,546.04 |
| Special Gold Reserve (1670) | SR$33,135,302,017.40 |
1670
| Ethnocultural Category | Population | GDP per Capita | GDP |
| Constancian (Urban) | 2,721,358 | C$96,415,397.40 | C$262,380,813,037,669.00 |
| Constancian (Rural) | 7,138,290 | C$13,473,600.00 | C$96,178,464,144,000.00 |
| Raspurid (Citizen) | 1,200,827 | C$146,981,397.15 | C$176,499,230,195,443.00 |
| Raspurid (Subject) | 2,773,793 | C$31,510,960.95 | C$87,404,882,906,383.30 |
| Iteran (Helot) | 1,959,121 | C$6,989,430.00 | C$13,693,139,091,030.00 |
| Total | 15,793,389 | C$59,074,157.10 | C$932,981,142,927,412.00 |
| ' | ' |
| Amicable Grants: | C$5,718,335,093,445.45 |
| Fees, Tariffs, Customs: | C$52,997,765,453,685.20 |
| General Taxation | C$314,705,548,263,714.00 |
| Govt Expenditure: | C$5,187,767,919,826.80 |
| Contribution to Trans-Euran Command: | C$472,129,979,284,555.00 |
| Net Revenue: | -C$103,896,098,393,537.00 |
| Bullion / Currency Reserves: | SR$17,231,974,546.04 |
Trade and investment
Exchange rates
1670
- 1 Imperial Stater = 0.0016 Shirerithian Erb
- 1 Shirerithian Erb = 642.56 Imperial Stater
- 1 Imperial Stater = 0.00020 Natopian Natopo
- 1 Natopian Natopo = 4,911.04 Imperial Stater
- 1 Imperial Stater = 0.000018 Craitish Cräite
- 1 Craitish Cräite = 55,687.65 Imperial Stater
- 1 Imperial Stater = 0.000064 Liberadosan Cruz
- 1 Liberadosan Cruz = 15,578.58 Imperial Stater
