On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 02:35:19AM -0400, Richard Aiken wrote:
> That sort of locale justifies tramp freighters as the only means of
> shipping between systems, since the amount of shipping is so low
> that a container ship isn't economical to run. Fringe worlds are
> caught in the same Catch-22 as modern Third World states - they're
> underdeveloped because nobody invests in them and nobody invests in
> them because they're underdeveloped. So trade volumes remain low.

I rolled a random third-world country, in this case getting Myanmar
(Burma).  As of 2013, imports were 20% of its $60 billion GDP and
exports 22%.  In Traveller terms this would be a pop-7 world.  If we
equate 2013 US dollars to 0.1 imperial credits and assume an average
20 kCr per dton cargo value, then a corresponding world would import
and export about 1200 dtons per week.  Assuming a few days turnaround
at each end, at any given time a good fraction of that combined volume
of starships should be expected to be in ports.  So, on the order of
half a dozen freighters of 50-200 dton cargo capacity, and/or one or
two larger ships.

That's also assuming it's only an endpoint of trade routes, and that
no freight goes through the system.  In general this is usually a very
poor assumption since most systems lie between many other pairs of
systems and freighters must stop to refuel along their routes.  So we
should probably multiply that by a factor of at least 2-10 to account
for this.

Of course, there will also be smaller worlds and also those which have
other factors then merely economic ones restricting their trade.

- Tim