Ships - player owned... or not

[captainjack23]

The only reason history came up was because I asked how the financing of privately owned ships worked in the Age of Sail, if it happened at all (since the AoS is the supposed model of how the OTU is supposed to work). I don't believe anyone actually answered that question either.

Actually, I'm having Deja Vu - its come up more than once, in several contexts.
Anyhoo, heres the question.

Really, given the "age of sail" comparisons, I think people need to look at what actually happened in that age when it came to ship-buying and loans and banking etc.

But do ensure that you're looking at what happened with privately owned sailing ships (if there even were any, and they weren't all owned by navies etc). It'd be relatively easy to track down loans given to landowners in far off lands, because they're not mobile and so the banks could (relatively) easily track down those people - but ships can easily disappear off the (not yet invented) radar. They could be lost at sea, or fall to piracy, or become pirates, or vanish off the beaten track.

So, what happened in that era? Were there even any privately owned trading vessels or galleons at all?

Absolutely. And yes, the below applies to private sailing ships. Navies are a whole nother ball o wax, although, up until about the mid 1600's' s the bulk of navy ships were privately owned -and drafted for service.

Yes, ships were privately owned -big ones, small ones, galleons (although too early for the period discussed, really); they were also owned by all kinds of associations and governments. Pre 1600, I would suggest that private ownership was the norm if you just look at tonnage. Smaller ships were owned by the captain or his family. The biggest tended to be owned by families or royals but by no means all. (By families, BTW, I mean big extended related trading groups, essentially proto corporations). Very often the successful owner of a Ship would become the owner of more ships; which would become the foundation of a company as time went on and the holdings passed on.

As we roll into the 1600's, we have companies, joint stock ventures, and ownership corporations. Credit, and thus ships as a mortageable asset become much more common. As we roll into he 1700's we have insurance companies and banking based on credit (not specie) carried out with time delays similar to the 3I. By the 1800's, Just about every financial instrument of purchase and ownership (of real property) currently used was in place.

So, for most of the period in question - and the intended one for traveller really is 1700- early 1800's - ships of all sizes were owned in pretty much any way imaginable -obviously, the more expensive the less likely that they belong to one person -like the captain -but it was always so.

It's mostly nowadays, and the time since steam engines dominated trade and shipping that single owner ships of any size are a rarity.

There's an excellent thread here on that exact subject, from the last time you got interested in history and the age of sail:
Search for:
"Age of Sail" vs OTU, how close are they really?"

Shlio's post on page 3 is particulalry useful -as is the bibliography he suggested

http://www.io.com/gibbonsb/pob/

as well as refrences several others of us suggested.

Hope that helps.

 

[EDG]

As we roll into the 1600's, we have companies, joint stock ventures, and ownership corporations. Credit, and thus ships as a mortageable asset become much more common. As we roll into he 1700's we have insurance companies and banking based on credit (not specie) carried out with time delays similar to the 3I. By the 1800's, Just about every financial instrument of purchase and ownership (of real property) currently used was in place.

OK, that's useful. But what I was curious about was how the banks, insurance companies or whatever actually kept tabs on the ship captains' payments (and the whereabouts of the ship, for that matter). How easy was that to do back then?

 

[captainjack23]

As for pirating - a recent historical reference to somali pirates might be in order

I see this more as a problem of willingness to act and to pay the price
for the actions, not as a problem of economy or technology. ...

Exactly!

Even assuming that the technology and resources available in a Traveller setting (such as the 3I) exist, does not mean that those resources will be used to resolve problems of a limited commercial or civilian nature...

Consider that a small group of lightly armed, untrained (ok, maybe they went to pirate camp) pirates can face up to the military might of first world powers and not get blown out of the water and their 'secret' bases elimiated via missles launched thousands of miles away. There are reasons - since their operations don't fall into acts of war or a military threat - thus they can use hostages as 'shields' and threaten high monentary value commercial assets and be somewhat 'succesful'.

The technology and resources exist to locate and completely remove these thugs - it is not imployed because that level of escalation has its own inherent risks.

Despite the financial power of banks and insurance companies, locating and pursuing mortgage doggers and thieves and starship chop shops is unlikely to recieve any military support, excepting in the case of pirates.
And even then, it is going to be a much lower order of priority to military forces than their primary roles of defense or training to and waging war.

Piracy on the high seas has been going on for a long time. Like as not, piracy would happen in a space setting such as Traveller provides. (Heck - I was talking to a police officer last week who lived through an attempted car-jacking on a freeway - essentially piracy on the open road!)

(Sorry - I had a much better post, but somehow it disappeared. Ok, I know you've all heard that one before... but honestly, it happened!)

The thing about piracy in the OTU, which almost no one seems to mention is this: Piracy is at almost all times a desperate, stupid endeavor. And that desperate and/or stupid people will always exist; and in which case, arguments about punishment and impossibility of escape are entirely irrelevent -particulalry to peoiple who are both stupid and desperate -but desperate is enough at all times.

Pirates were a losing proposition in most periods if you look at it from the perspective of the pirate. I can count the number of successful (ie retired with their swag, alive and out of prison, and dies in bed full of concubines) on one hand, and half of those are likely fictional. They did enormous damage to some merchants, killed and tortured lots of innocents, and sometimes even spent their gains in a long weekend binge -but basically they died painfully (rope or bullet) or ended up as bums. But there were always more.

Which is to say, there is always some idiot or desperate man willing to risk it all for a chance at getting ahead -and it matters not one whit if his business model is illogical or absurd if its your ship he decided to act illogicaly upon.

As long as radically stupid ideas like Meth labs can exist, so will the chop shops and fences; they work for a while, then the owners get dead or jailed, and someone else will step up - sure that he will make enough for whatever short term goal he has in mind.

 

[BP]

Good question - many years ago I enjoyed reading up on Clipper ships (not that I recall much)...

For America private clipper ships, I recall references to merchants owning shares and defaulted bank loans. And White Star Lines (British - of Titanic fame) borrowed money from a bank that failed and put them out of business early on... but someone bought it and used the name... (and later it became American owned somehow - I think?)

Given the tie in to the tea trade (etc.) and fierce competition (i.e. the American clipper ships racing British ships, etc.) - private investors and banks probably financed most of the ship building (as opposed to owners putting up their own capital - since they were probably already invested to the hilt).

Lloyds fits in there somewhere...

Of course, there were also privateers ('legally' chartered pirates) - who during the many wars could obtain a ship for a modest fee

 

[captainjack23]

As we roll into the 1600's, we have companies, joint stock ventures, and ownership corporations. Credit, and thus ships as a mortageable asset become much more common. As we roll into he 1700's we have insurance companies and banking based on credit (not specie) carried out with time delays similar to the 3I. By the 1800's, Just about every financial instrument of purchase and ownership (of real property) currently used was in place.

OK, that's useful. But what I was curious about was how the banks, insurance companies or whatever actually kept tabs on the ship captains' payments (and the whereabouts of the ship, for that matter). How easy was that to do back then?

In the age of sail, most places one traded at had actual civilized banks and companies. Mail and couriers criss-crossed the world and allowed central companies or banks to keep very reasonable track of financial matters. Its hard for a modern person to realize just how many small ships of the time were simply dedicated to communication -packets was one term for them.

Otherwise, they would use general agents at ports, and/or a semiformal system of exchanges - ie I could make a payment at one bank who would send credit to another bank (for a fee, but pretty much everyone did it and it was assumed in the overhead -in other words, passed on to the customer).

The time lags were longer, granted, but so, too were the times allowed for being late. None of this 30 days overdue repossession we see nowadays. Often the payment increments were also much longer. Plus, the payments were often agreed to be capitalized, which meant that one could pay off quite a few payments when you returned from the ass-end of nowhere -but at higher final costs.

That said, keep in mind too that if the guarantor had less ability to keep tabs, they also had much less in the way of consumer protection to deal with. Repossessions and seizures were a major business, and often quite brutally handled.

Honestly, there are good historical models for most of the issues raised in this thread. I know it seems illogical from a modern perspective, but one can't simply use modern day as the main argument against (say) commerce or communication in the 3I. Its a fascinating time period, and it's more than just "nowadays with powdered wigs and syphilis".

 

[captainjack23]

Of course, there were also privateers ('legally' chartered pirates) - who during the many wars could obtain a ship for a modest fee

Keep in mind that privateers were often very corporate ventures...the captain was an employee, and the owners were merchants and bankers, who stayed at home and took profit statements, thank you very much, no planks or tarred ropes for me, either.

There are numerous cases where privateer masters and crew were sued by the owners for failing to excercise due dilligence towards taking prizes. I'm not making that up. :shock:

 

[BP]

...what I was curious about was how the banks, insurance companies or whatever actually kept tabs on the ship captains' payments (and the whereabouts of the ship, for that matter). How easy was that to do back then?

During the clipper era - sail times were published in newspapers - and considering the manual labor involved at docks and for distribution of goods - news would spread quickly about the goings on and whereabouts of ships (and probably crew ).

I believe captains were well compensated to boot. And treated like celebrities - like race car drivers or professional athletes.

Not a clue as to interest rates, payment schedules and terms...

 

[EDG]

In the age of sail, most places one traded at had actual civilized banks and companies. Mail and couriers criss-crossed the world and allowed central companies or banks to keep very reasonable track of financial matters. Its hard for a modern person to realize just how many small ships of the time were simply dedicated to communication -packets was one term for them.

Otherwise, they would use general agents at ports, and/or a semiformal system of exchanges - ie I could make a payment at one bank who would send credit to another bank (for a fee, but pretty much everyone did it and it was assumed in the overhead -in other words, passed on to the customer).

The time lags were longer, granted, but so, too were the times allowed for being late. None of this 30 days overdue repossession we see nowadays. Often the payment increments were also much longer. Plus, the payments were often agreed to be capitalized, which meant that one could pay off quite a few payments when you returned from the ass-end of nowhere -but at higher final costs.

That said, keep in mind too that if the guarantor had less ability to keep tabs, they also had much less in the way of consumer protection to deal with. Repossessions and seizures were a major business, and often quite brutally handled.

Right, now we're getting somewhere.

So... why isn't this model applied to the OTU? The communications part of it seems to fails miserably - the current X-boat system seems largely useless for the "common man" and have very limited extent. Are there "packets" zipping around all over the OTU?

IIRC, I once proposed that all ships jumping out of a system should be required to carry some useful data (for market prices etc) that would then be broadcast to the mainworld as soon as they arrived in a destination system. Given a lot of traffic, that means that market prices in other systems could be tracked much closer to realtime if ships were arriving from those systems at a rapid rate.

Why couldn't the same be done for banking data? Maybe not any ships, but even if you had a cycle of seven ships carrying such data jumping between two systems at a rate of one per day, you could potentially have an informational time lag of only one day instead of one week. That would make it easier for banks to to track loans and stuff, wouldn't it?

 

[BP]

There are numerous cases where privateer masters and crew were sued by the owners for failing to excercise due dilligence towards taking prizes. I'm not making that up. :shock:

Or rebranded as pirates!

Sorry, I missed your (excellent) posts between mine (I'm a slow typer and easily distracted).

Not sure many people understand the direct relationships between traveller and this age - from the social status to the TAS news and the x-boat system... (from my schooling I wouldn't - just happened to be a passing interest - probably stemming from the Cutty Sark model my Dad had when I was a kid).

 

[BP]

Right, now we're getting somewhere.

So... why isn't this model applied to the OTU? The communications part of it seems to fails miserably - the current X-boat system seems largely useless for the "common man" and have very limited extent. Are there "packets" zipping around all over the OTU?

Prior to the telegraph (at the end of the Age of Sail, when Clipper ships dominated in the commercial race wars of the high seas) - this is much how the British Empire and internation trade worked. Of course, the common man, by definition, was less of a player - this was the realm of the uncommon man (and the poor sailor)...

This leaves room for the mail deliver (and private courier services) options provided in the trade rules. Of course, this system could also be used to the government's advantage - limitied communications...

And yes, your suggestion makes perfect sense - its essentially what I used in MTU - though not as a 'requirement' - rather an option that ships would be unlikely to turn down.

 

[captainjack23]

Right, now we're getting somewhere.

So... why isn't this model applied to the OTU? The communications part of it seems to fails miserably - X-boats are largely useless for the "common man" and have very limited extent. Are there "packets" zipping around all over the OTU?

Yes, actually, it is. Read the subsidized mail options, and the functions of the Scout service off of the xboat lines -the 100t courier being the lynchpin.

Unless you feel the mail options only apply to envelope and stamp mail -and not data banks, any ship can carry data from world to world at a very profitable rate (better IIRC than any other cargo) for minimum effort. (a gun). One assumes that profit motive would assure that most would.

I'm not sure why you feel the x-boat system is useless: actually, Xboats generally connect the high pop worlds, which generally comprise 90% of the poulation of a subsector; and the high tech ones which probably contribute a disproportionate amount of the traffic demand, also. Plus, they are just the backbone of the system. Granted I don't have direct access to major routers and communication cables, but I don't think it makes email useless.

IIRC, I once proposed that all ships jumping out of a system should be required to carry some useful data (for market prices etc) that would then be broadcast to the mainworld as soon as they arrived in a destination system. Given a lot of traffic, that means that market prices in other systems could be tracked much closer to realtime if ships were arriving from those systems at a rapid rate.

Again, I'm not sure about where this isn't in place. Plus, the issue about speculation in traveller commerce/shipping isn't what the price is on a given market today, or even yesterday , but what it will be after you plunk down the credits and spend at least one week in jumpspace with no communications.

Data lag wasn't much worse in the 17-1800's between major ports -there was pretty much a stream of ships between Boston and London (both ways), for instance, with daily arrivals giving prices and such: but, as ever, the risk starts when you commit to the transaction without a future price in place -and, too, with sail, a delay of a week just to get to France from England wasn't too unheard of. Any market can swing wildly in a week or even less...as we find out today.

Why couldn't the same be done for banking data? Maybe not any ships, but even if you had a cycle of seven ships carrying such data jumping between two systems at a rate of one per day, you could potentially have an informational time lag of only one day instead of one week. That would make it easier for banks to to track loans and stuff, wouldn't it?

Yes -and it is. Unless you have access to detailed data about shipping traffic, I'd assume that any decent port connects to other major one jump ports on a daily basis for this exact reason. Data flows into a system on the ships, is transmitted as soon as possible, and sent out again on outward bound ships headed in the right direction. Insystem delay can be as little as speed of light + bandwidth.

Whereas the archetypical 3I xboat communication is more like telegraph in play(message for you sir, hot off of the clicker from Sir Reginald), the bulk of the data seems to be effectively modeled by a torrent network, or just plain simple email packet switching technology. Much greater latency, but MUCH bigger packets, I suppose.

I know that "canon" isn't a valid argument for you (and others), but much of that distaste seems to aimed at excessive canon by fiat: by which I mean, things that work because they are said to work (as with, say, the Tardis or the Moon in Space 1999).
There are some excellent articles in the old JTAS which deal with and discuss the rationale of imperial economics & currency in this exact way; and are, HORROR canonical, insofar as they are the written background of the 3I; and also, IIRC the GURPS sourcebooks which I know you like (to anyone wanting to fuss about GURPS being valid: please talk to someone else :wink speak on this at length in, for example, the merchant and the scout books. Check it out.

 

[aspqrz]

In this specific argument, science is irrelevant, so my lack (or otherwise) of scientific knowledge is irrelevant ...

Actually, the science was entirely relevant to the topic.

But entirely irrelevant to what I was saying. As the rest of the post I have deleted above remains.

Tracking the inevitable economic tracks will trump the science any and every time.

Phil

 

[captainjack23]

In this specific argument, science is irrelevant, so my lack (or otherwise) of scientific knowledge is irrelevant ...

Actually, the science was entirely relevant to the topic.

But entirely irrelevant to what I was saying. As the rest of the post I have deleted above remains.

Tracking the inevitable economic tracks will trump the science any and every time.

Phil

:? I've read that three times. Its still confusing. Did something get left out ?


PS: Hey ! You wrote Farm Forge and Steam ? That was great. Thanks !

 

[EDG]

Yes, actually, it is. Read the subsidized mail options, and the functions of the Scout service off of the xboat lines -the 100t courier being the lynchpin.

It seems very understated, if it is present.

I'm not sure why you feel the x-boat system is useless: actually, Xboats generally connect the high pop worlds, which generally comprise 90% of the poulation of a subsector;

They should, yes... but often the x-boat network is just completely made up witout regard to the worlds they're connecting (largely because they link A and B starports, which given the utter randomness of the default worldgen aren't necessarily high population worlds at all).

Data lag wasn't much worse in the 17-1800's between major ports -there was pretty much a stream of ships between Boston and London (both ways), for instance, with daily arrivals giving prices and such: but, as ever, the risk starts when you commit to the transaction without a future price in place -and, too, with sail, a delay of a week just to get to France from England wasn't too unheard of. Any market can swing wildly in a week or even less...as we find out today.

True, but data logging is much more advanced now (or in the future) than it was in the 17-1800s. Yes, the markets can fluctuate, but given enough data (gathered by monitoring the prices over time) I think one could lower the risks substantially. For example, if say Textiles have been a good seller on a world for months and months, then it's not unreasonable to assume that it's a good commodity to purchase elsewhere and sell at a profit there in a week's time. Sure, there's a risk that the market will change within that week, but at least you have some predictive capacity.

Yes -and it is. Unless you have access to detailed data about shipping traffic, I'd assume that any decent port connects to other major one jump ports on a daily basis for this exact reason. Data flows into a system on the ships, is transmitted as soon as possible, and sent out again on outward bound ships headed in the right direction. Insystem delay can be as little as speed of light + bandwidth.

Again, if this is the case it seems to be overlooked somewhat in the OTU.

 

[aspqrz]

Actually, the science was entirely relevant to the topic.

But entirely irrelevant to what I was saying. As the rest of the post I have deleted above remains.

Tracking the inevitable economic tracks will trump the science any and every time.

Phil

:? I've read that three times. Its still confusing. Did something get left out ?


PS: Hey ! You wrote Farm Forge and Steam ? That was great. Thanks !

Simply put, EDG was saying that space is big, so sensors won't reveal pirate bases ... making them indetectable ... which is irrelevant to what I was saying, which is that Piracy leaves economic tracks that will make the bases detectable by their economic activity. The size of space makes no difference to this, neither does the effectiveness of sensors.

I am glad you like FFnS. One of these days, in my copious free time :wink:, I hope to get around to updating and expanding it.

Phil

 

[EDG]

Simply put, EDG was saying that space is big, so sensors won't reveal pirate bases ... making them indetectable ... which is irrelevant to what I was saying, which is that Piracy leaves economic tracks that will make the bases detectable by their economic activity. The size of space makes no difference to this, neither does the effectiveness of sensors.

You keep making that assertion while providing no evidence that it is true. Maybe you're right, maybe you're not - but merely asserting that you're right doesn't make it true. So explain to me - from first principles, and without using the argument of "it must be true because canon says so" - exactly how these "economic activities" are trackable in the OTU. And even if such activity is trackable, explain to me how (given the physical issues) that helps anyone physically locate and shut down the pirate activity.

 

[silburnl]

And even if such activity is trackable, explain to me how (given the physical issues) that helps anyone physically locate and shut down the pirate activity.

For the purposes of this discussion space isn't actually that big EDG. Based on the formulae given on Atomic Rockets I did some BoE calcs that indicated that we, now, could get 'pirate base detection' coverage for the solar system out to the Kuiper Belt with ~1000 evenly distributed sensor platforms. Presumably the CTU Imperium could achieve something similar with far fewer platforms - the drone loadout of a Suleiman or two seems plausible to me.

This approach relies on the pirate base radiating their waste heat into space, so absent a technofix that permits the pirate base to dump their heat into a glory hole of some kind it's a pretty hard obstacle for the pirates to get around.

So, for the cost of tasking a few Suleimans to drone herding duty you can ID any human-compatible orbital habitat in the systems near where pirates are making themselves obnoxious. After a bit of traffic analysis work you should have a pretty short list of 'habitats of interest' for your local subsector navy's counter-piracy taskforce.

Regards
Luke

 

[aspqrz]

Simply put, EDG was saying that space is big, so sensors won't reveal pirate bases ... making them indetectable ... which is irrelevant to what I was saying, which is that Piracy leaves economic tracks that will make the bases detectable by their economic activity. The size of space makes no difference to this, neither does the effectiveness of sensors.

You keep making that assertion while providing no evidence that it is true.

It's not an assertion if its self evidently true - or, at least, if you have enough of an understanding of basic economic theory to understand that its true.

Others seem to grasp the concept of a "paper trail" ... I am continually surprised that you can't manage to ... and at the absolutely amazing levels of ... lack of basic knowledge of economics or of practical criminal investigation ... that your inability to grasp it displays.

Perhaps you might like to consider why one of the key quals for a G-Man were originally (and remain) accountancy ... or why they got Big Al for tax evasion ... and how they often get organised crime figures today ... or track down even sophisticated criminal operations through ... shock! :roll: horror! :shock: ... paper trail (or computer trail, of course) records of their economic activity.

Actually, I can't believe that someone could be so silly as to not grasp it - so I guess you're just doing it for the hell of it ...

Phil

 

[aspqrz]

And even if such activity is trackable, explain to me how (given the physical issues) that helps anyone physically locate and shut down the pirate activity.

After a bit of traffic analysis work you should have a pretty short list of 'habitats of interest' for your local subsector navy's counter-piracy taskforce.

Exactly. And Traffic Analysis is part of measuring economic activity!

Perhaps EDG is unaware of just how broad a church "economic activity" is? Maybe.

Phil

 

[captainjack23]

Yes, actually, it is. Read the subsidized mail options, and the functions of the Scout service off of the xboat lines -the 100t courier being the lynchpin.

It seems very understated, if it is present.

Possibly. I found it. So have others. It is present -I think in the histories of the IISS, and the scout books -certainly in library data.

I'm not sure why you feel the x-boat system is useless: actually, Xboats generally connect the high pop worlds, which generally comprise 90% of the poulation of a subsector;

They should, yes... but often the x-boat network is just completely made up witout regard to the worlds they're connecting (largely because they link A and B starports, which given the utter randomness of the default worldgen aren't necessarily high population worlds at all).

Perhaps it should connect hi pop worlds more directly. I can't say that it doesn't -I'd need to look at more subsector maps than I have time for; nor do I have access to the criterea used by the designer when drawing it in.

Regardless, a low tech hi pop is going to be less useful to the network than a high tech one. And isn't there a modifier for tech in population ? If so, it will connect more high pop worlds. Unfortunately this is speculation - I don't have the opportunity to run the numbers.

In any case, they do connect the A&B starports, which are far and away the higher tech worlds; which as I pointed out are the worlds most likely to disproportionately need the system. Look at the routes:within a sector almost all systems are within two jumps of a line -and most within a single jump 2.

Also, how is connecting A&B ports "utterly random"? If one looks at the xboat as the trunk lines of the system, it makes sense to run it through the systems most able to support it, and provide ships to disseminate it. The model is the same as any large scale pre-radio postal or news system. Trains connected places that could maintain trains, and horses and foot spread it from there.

Data lag wasn't much worse in the 17-1800's between major ports -there was pretty much a stream of ships between Boston and London (both ways), for instance, with daily arrivals giving prices and such: but, as ever, the risk starts when you commit to the transaction without a future price in place -and, too, with sail, a delay of a week just to get to France from England wasn't too unheard of. Any market can swing wildly in a week or even less...as we find out today.

True, but data logging is much more advanced now (or in the future) than it was in the 17-1800s. Yes, the markets can fluctuate, but given enough data (gathered by monitoring the prices over time) I think one could lower the risks substantially. For example, if say Textiles have been a good seller on a world for months and months, then it's not unreasonable to assume that it's a good commodity to purchase elsewhere and sell at a profit there in a week's time. Sure, there's a risk that the market will change within that week, but at least you have some predictive capacity.

Who said one doesn't? Much as you rightly point out that few of us get how big space is, I think that you vastly overvalue the nature of prediction. I can build you a regression equation that will predict the last four lottery wins to 90% accuracy -but it wont make you a winner next time. It cannot track random variation, OR intentional variation -as caused by humans speculating on the same data.
In your example, real time data can cause that market to be flooded when six traders independently note that its a good market, and independently ship more cargo than it can use.

Besides, I think you are over estimating the actual randomness of the trade model in Traveller. Have you actually looked at it ? One can make bets, and generally come out ahead; if not by much. Big gains require taking bigger risks. Sounds like speculative trading to me.

Yes -and it is. Unless you have access to detailed data about shipping traffic, I'd assume that any decent port connects to other major one jump ports on a daily basis for this exact reason. Data flows into a system on the ships, is transmitted as soon as possible, and sent out again on outward bound ships headed in the right direction. Insystem delay can be as little as speed of light + bandwidth.

Again, if this is the case it seems to be overlooked somewhat in the OTU.

Wait...that argument again ? Is this a canon argument or not ? If it's there its there. If someone doesn't notice it, well, so ? read more books.
On the other hand, if it's a reasonable explanation, in a discussion of a fictional setting, why would it matter if it hasn't been explicitly stated ? I'm not trying to be snarky, I'm just confused as to the terms here. If you don't want arguments of truth by reference, its hard to see where falsification by omission is valid. Especially when its not omission, but rather simple "obscurity".

The situation seems to be this: you think the system is broken, and that's your canon; and frankly, it more and more seems to be canon by fiat. Which is fine in an RPG world, but frustrating when its held up as a response to a detailed answer to a question.

I'm glad the trade and ownership stuff was helpful. The stuff about the xboat modeling and communications with reference to historical models is obviously less so for you. If you can clarify why things don't (or might not, or didn't) work the way described, I'd be interested. Otherwise we are arguing over which color of coolaid is better tasting.

I've answered a bunch of your questions, but I can't explain why you don't know the information in the first place, or why you don't like it, or why it wasn't done differently. This is not being snarky or condescending -it's just a fact; and gets into motivation, which you just don't put up with very well at all.

So, any other questions ?