[GZG official Universe] Interstellar economics

Well, in the GZG universe, obviously space travel & vehicles are
relatively 
cheap.	Look at the Fleet Book - this does not cover all classes or
powers, 
and there are...1206 ships in the NAC Fleet - I included lost, 
decommissioned and sold, as they still had to be paid for.  That's a LOT
of 
ships.	And these ships make no money.	They are holes in space into
which 
money is poured, to steal a phrase.  There are going to be a LOT more 
commercial ships.  Think of it this way:  Exxon sends out a probe, finds
a 
neato semi-habitable world.  A survey team finds a decent amount of 
potential resources.  Exxon calls up the NAC, and says:  You annex this 
nice new world, and we'll both profit.	NAC annexes the world, Exxon's 
credit rating jumps, they send out a corporate fleet, start harvesting,
NAC 
collects the taxes.  Everybody is happy.  There's going to be plenty of 
money for exploration when FTL is cheap, because you're making the jump 
from everybody having slices of one system, to everybody having multiple

systems to exploit!  Even the percieved benefit will be enough to spur 
growth.  And as far as resources go, demand will always outstrip supply.

 As soon as we start mining the belts, and get used to all the nice,
cheap 
metals, we're going to want more.  Especially the rare stuff.

Noah