Economy of Kalgachia
The Economy of Kalgachia has several distinctive features determined by the geography of the country, its natural resources, its geopolitical isolation and the cultivated work ethic of its population. It tends heavily toward the production and exchange of physical commodities, with most aspects of the service and infrastructure sectors being nationalised or church-owned as was the case in its predecessor state, Minarboria.
Land Ownership and the Primacy of the Church
Although free economic enterprise is nominally permitted in Kalgachia, it falls short of capitalistic excess in large part due to a prohibition on the private ownership of land and its consequent absence as a tradeable asset - any land not directly requisitioned by central state organs defaults to the ownership of the Church of Kalgachia, each parish of which is obliged to provide its inhabitants with housing. Although the operation of small-scale private enterprises from church-owned housing is permitted, business ventures requiring dedicated premises are only allotted land if they cede themselves to Church ownership (in practice this is generally a formality, with such businesses retaining their previous management and permitted some freedom to operate as long as their activities remain within the moral imperatives of Church doctrine).
Church-owned housing is graded as follows:
- Local jails
- Hostels for newly released convicts/lunatics, transients and vagabonds
- Homes for invalids, orphans, geriatrics and similarly worthy destitutes
- Homes for the working class
- Homes for the managerial class
- Homes for the executive class
The Church pays for the upkeep of its housing - along with other Parish-level public services for which it is entirely responsible - through its considerable accretion of business interests which, even after the cost of public services is deducted, makes it by far the wealthiest entity in Kalgachia (this funding model was originally pioneered by the Church of Minarboria through its subsidiary Shrubway restaurant chain). This has occasionally caused problems of corruption among the junior clergy requiring central intervention, but it is generally agreed that without the moral and spiritual vigilance of the Church against the insidious temptations of the pecuniary archon, the sequestration of such a large proportion of Kalgachia's wealth in the hands of any other authority would be disastrous.
The Church-owned businesses of each Kalgachi Parish are required to tithe a proportion of their production to their superior March, the greatest proportion of that being tithed onward to the Directorate of Labour and Economic Planning (DLEP) for use in large projects. Nationally-critical industries requiring short supply chains and emergency production orders such as armaments and high-tech components are run in-house by the DLEP itself.
The Sanctity of Food
Due to Kalgachia's strict policy of maintining 'food sovereignty' on agriculturally sub-optimal terrain, all production of food is monitored closely by the Directorate of Health and Public Welfare (DHPW) which is empowered to impose corrective measures - upto and including full management takeovers - of any food producers, processors or distributors considered to be wasteful in their operations. It works closely with Kalgachia's internal security service, the Prefects, to identify price-gougers or hoarders. Church partisans do however enjoy the exclusive privilege of hoarding food in their many concealed caches, the partisans' status as a food source being considered essential in wartime to maintain local support during an invader's punitive reprisals against civilians for partisan activity, as well as offering a lifeline in case of the attempted extermination of the Kalgachi population by artificial famine (including on a startegic level by the deployment of mass chemical defoliants or biological pests against Kalgachi farming areas). In addition to this, the DHPW itself maintains substantial reserves of long-shelf-life food in deep underground installations.
Due to a risk inexplicably termed by initiate seers of the Troglodyti as 'Ceaușescu's Folly', the import or export of food to or from Kalgachia is strictly forbidden, with the exception of recreational beverages such as Stalemate Gin. This ensures that the nutrition of the population never becomes existentially dependent on foreign trade and thus eliminates a vulnerability which might be leveraged against Kalgachia by foreign powers.
Important Sectors
Most economic activity in Kalgachia is concerned with agriculture and its associated trades; Kalgachia must feed its population from narrow arable strips in river valleys and hillside terraces with upland sheep and goat pastures, a difficult process to undertake intensively and requiring a sizeable portion of the Kalgachi labour force. Mining is the second most important sector, mainly gold for foreign trade and tungsten for kinetic armaments. Forestry is also a notable sector, occurring mainly in conifer plantations along the lower hills of the Kalgachi frontier which serve a second purpose as cover for defending troops and partisans in the event of an invasion. Kalgachia has also seen the emergence of a textile industry, turning the wool obtained from flocks of mountain sheep into all manner of insulating garments.
Because Kalgachia has no natural reserves of fossil fuel, nor the contacts to import it in any great amount, nor the arable land to spare for biofuel production as was popular in Minarboria, a small industry exists for the production or conversion of battery-powered electric vehicles, charged from Kalgachia's geothermally-powered electrical grid. The dearth of fossil fuel remains a problem, however, especially for military hardware to which almost all of Kalgachia's modest stocks of diesel and aviation fuel are committed. Except for these high-end applications, even the Kalgachi armed forces themselves remain dependent on the pack horse for transportation of goods.
Labour force
The character of the Kalgachi labour force has, to date, progressed through three distinct stages:
- 143-150 AL: The first generation of motivated Minarborian immigrants, overwhelmingly engaged in the development of infrastructure.
- 150-161 AL: Large influxes of Froyalanish Community Service Workers, imported from Shireroth after their societal downfall and mass bondage there. Mainly engaged in agriculture and raw material extraction.
- 161 AL-present: Emancipation of Froyalanish labour and the introduction of a minimum wage. Transition toward the aggressively promoted work ethic of the prevailing ethnic Kalgachi, pedagogically conditioned by the Urchagin and similar initiatives. Engaged in all areas of the Kalgachi economy, allowing the hardest workers to attain substantial social mobility.
Currency
Kalgachi currency adheres to a very literal form of the gold standard, containing that precious metal physically within all its denominations. The base unit of Kalgachi currency is the Kalgarrand (kgr), a coin of 99.9% fine gold at a weight of 31.1 grams (1 troy ounce), 2mm thickness and a very small diameter of 18.08mm. Owing to its immense value and impractical ductility, the Kalgarrand coin is not often used in everyday commerce and where it is, it is invariably mounted within a protective casing. Denominations of Kalgarrand are minted as an alloy of tin with the appropriate proportion of gold content. The most valuable of these is the Half Kalgarrand, of equal weight in both gold and tin although the lesser density of the latter results in a larger coin of 22.44mm diameter. Coins of lower value retain the Half Kalgarrand's size, but with less gold and more tin as appropriate to their denomination. The differing proportions and densities of the alloyed metals give each coin a unique lustre and weight profile which aids greatly in authentication, although this variance is less discernible in lower denominations and generally requires specialised analysis such as spectrometry.
Although traditionally expressed as a fraction for high-value transactions, sub-Kalgarrand amounts are expressed decimally as Millirand (thousandths of a Kalgarrand) in everyday use.
Gold and Currency Production / Foreign Expenditure Data
| Year | Gold mined and smelted | Gold allotted to industrial/aesthetic uses | Gold committed to Strategic Bullion Reserve | Gold exported abroad from Strategic Bullion Reserve | Gold minted into Kalgarrand | Kalgarrand spent abroad from domestic circulation | Kalgarrand released into domestic circulation | Kalgarrand spent abroad from Strategic Currency Reserve | Kalgarrand committed to Strategic Currency Reserve |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 157 AL[1] | 150 tonnes (of a potential 150 tonnes) |
30 tonnes (from new gold production) |
20 tonnes (from new gold production) |
none | 100 tonnes totalling 3,215,434 kgr (from new gold production) |
492 kgr | 492 kgr (from newly minted currency) |
2,226 kgr | 3,214,942 kgr (from newly minted currency) |
| 158 AL[2] | 150 tonnes (of a potential 150 tonnes) |
33 tonnes (from new gold production) |
20 tonnes (from new gold production) |
none | 97 tonnes totalling 3,118,971 kgr (from new gold production) |
613 kgr | 613 kgr (from newly minted currency) |
1,919 kgr | 3,118,358 kgr (from newly minted currency) |
| 159 AL[3] | 135 tonnes (of a potential 150 tonnes) |
28 tonnes (from new gold production) |
20 tonnes (from new gold production) |
none | 87 tonnes totalling 2,797,427 kgr (from new gold production) |
720 kgr | 720 kgr (from newly minted currency) |
3,233,682 kgr[4] | 2,796,707 kgr (from newly minted currency) |
| 160 AL[5] | 142 tonnes (of a potential 150 tonnes) |
24 tonnes (from new gold production) |
20 tonnes (from new gold production) |
none | 98 tonnes totalling 3,151,125 kgr (from new gold production) |
686 kgr | 686 kgr (from newly minted currency) |
35,973 kgr | 3,150,439 kgr (from newly minted currency) |
| 161 AL[6] | 50 tonnes (of a potential 150 tonnes) |
35 tonnes (from new gold production) |
15 tonnes (from new gold production) |
2 tonnes | none | 706 kgr | 706 kgr (from Strategic Currency Reserve) |
33,812 kgr | none |
| 162 AL[7] | 35 tonnes (of a potential 150 tonnes) |
31 tonnes (from new gold production) |
4 tonnes (from new gold production) |
1 tonne | none | 881 kgr | 881 kgr (from Strategic Currency Reserve) |
34,876 kgr | none |
| 163 AL[8] | 95 tonnes (of a potential 150 tonnes) |
25 tonnes (from new gold production) |
5 tonnes (from new gold production) |
none | 65 tonnes totalling 2,090,032 kgr (from new gold production) |
795 kgr | 2,000,795 kgr (from Strategic Currency Reserve) [9] |
34,618 kgr | 2,090,032 kgr (from newly minted currency) |
| 164 AL[10] | 32 tonnes (of a potential 150 tonnes) |
30 tonnes (from new gold production) |
2 tonnes (from new gold production) |
4 tonnes | none | 814 kgr | 814 kgr (from Strategic Currency Reserve) |
33,047 kgr | none |
| 165 AL[11] | 30 tonnes (of a potential 150 tonnes) |
33 tonnes (30 tonnes from new gold production, 3 tonnes from Strategic Bullion Reserve) |
none | 3 tonnes | none | 869 kgr | 869 kgr (from Strategic Currency Reserve) |
36,198 kgr | none |
| 166 AL[12] | 35 tonnes (of a potential 150 tonnes) |
29 tonnes (from new gold production) |
6 tonnes (from new gold production) |
1 tonne | none | 772 kgr | 772 kgr (from Strategic Currency Reserve) |
34,111 kgr | none |
| 167 AL[13] | 28 tonnes (of a potential 150 tonnes) |
26 tonnes (from new gold production) |
2 tonnes (from new gold production) |
none | none | 594 kgr | 594 kgr (from Strategic Currency Reserve) |
33,718 kgr | none |
Gold and Currency Stocks (Cumulative)
| Year (end of) |
Total bullion in Strategic Reserve | Total Kalgachi-assayed bullion abroad[14] | Total Kalgarrand in Strategic Reserve | Total Kalgarrand in domestic circulation | Total Kalgarrand abroad[15] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 156 AL | 160 tonnes | none | 9,703,888 kgr | 16,000,000 kgr | 19,584 kgr |
| 157 AL | 180 tonnes | none | 12,916,604 kgr | 16,000,000 kgr | 22,302 kgr |
| 158 AL | 200 tonnes | none | 16,033,043 kgr | 16,000,000 kgr | 24,834 kgr |
| 159 AL | 220 tonnes | none | 15,596,068 kgr | 16,000,000 kgr | 3,259,663 kgr |
| 160 AL | 240 tonnes | none | 18,710,534 kgr | 16,000,000 kgr | 3,296,322 kgr |
| 161 AL | 252 tonnes | 2 tonnes | 18,676,016 kgr | 16,000,000 kgr | 3,330,840 kgr |
| 162 AL | 255 tonnes | 3 tonnes | 18,640,249 kgr | 16,000,000 kgr | 3,366,597 kgr |
| 163 AL | 260 tonnes | 3 tonnes | 18,694,868 kgr | 18,000,000 kgr | 3,402,010 kgr |
| 164 AL | 258 tonnes | 7 tonnes | 18,661,007 kgr | 18,000,000 kgr | 3,435,871 kgr |
| 165 AL | 252 tonnes | 10 tonnes | 18,623,940 kgr | 18,000,000 kgr | 3,472,938 kgr |
| 166 AL | 257 tonnes | 11 tonnes | 18,589,057 kgr | 18,000,000 kgr | 3,507,821 kgr |
| 167 AL | 259 tonnes | 11 tonnes | 18,554,745 kgr | 18,000,000 kgr | 3,542,133 kgr |
________________________________________________
- ^ October 25th to November 2nd, 2017.
- ^ November 3rd to November 12th, 2017.
- ^ November 13th to November 22nd, 2017.
- ^ This spike in expenditure caused by the cash purchase of 32 Jan-van-Gent VII Model transport aircraft from Jingdao.
- ^ November 23rd to December 2nd, 2017.
- ^ December 3rd to December 12th, 2017.
- ^ December 13th to December 22nd, 2017.
- ^ December 23rd, 2017 to January 1st, 2018.
- ^ Kalgarrand circulation increased to account for the emancipation of 2 million Froyalanish labourers from bondage and their entry into the wage/consumer economy.
- ^ January 2nd to January 11th, 2018.
- ^ January 12th to January 21st, 2018.
- ^ January 22nd to January 31st, 2018.
- ^ February 1st to February 10th, 2018.
- ^ Not including exported Kalgachi-hallmarked gold products such as jewellery.
- ^ Owing to the inflation of Kalgachi bullion stocks over time, conversion of Kalgarrand into foreign currency is best subjected to a temporal modifier in accordance with the varying flow of time between the Anno Libertatis and other calendars (conversion of Kalgarrand to currencies of nations operating under Ab Nortone, for instance, requiring the sum total of other variables determining the rate of exchange to be divided by three for a real-terms figure. Conversion of Kalgarrand to currencies of nations operating in uncompressed Earth time would require the rate to be divided by 36.5. The Reserve Bank of Kalgachia cannot be held responsible for inflationary events, currency crashes or bankruptcies arising from the renunciation of this advice nor, conversely, the gaming of global currency markets for personal profit by the exploitation of temporal haemorrhaging.)
