[AgentZero]

Oh, & just posted this tirade over on the SE4 mailing list...

Personally I just can't understand how anyone can think that inter-species trade without a single agreed form of currency would be possible. The argument is made that the existing resources are the currency of trade but they're not. They're raw materials. How many countries trade soley with raw materials even today? I bet you could count them on one hand, but only if you didn't have any fingers (or a thumb!) My argument in favour of money can be exemplified by looking at Britain.
As we all know, Britain was at one point the most powerful empire the world has ever seen. They virtually unrivalled in their superiority. Sure they were challanged, but look how that ended. Now, did Britain have enormous reserves of raw resources?
No.
She imported virtually everything. And how did she accomplish this? By building a vast trading empire that brought in vast ammounts of, you guessed it, MONEY! By importing raw resources from her colonies, refining them, and selling the finished product (obviously at considerably higher cost than the materials alone) to other countries, Britain made lots and lots and lots of money. And with all this money, she paid for her soldiers, guns, cannons and ships that kept the empire together. (Her downfall was becoming to confident in her superiority and allowing other nations a surpass her in new technologies, which resulted in her beginning to be an importer of finished products, instead of an exporter but that's a whole different topic).
Now, is an economy like that possible in SE5?
No.
Why? Because it just doesn't work without money. But it would be fantastic in SE5. It would allow smaller empires and minor races to actually compete, by building up their trading infrastructre. An example of how it might work:
On a planet, preferably one already producing a high income level, the player builds a Trade Centre. This allows the planet to be 'connected' to any planet belonging to a neutral/allied race. After a certain number of turns spent 'establishing' the trade route, it would begin producing income which would be a factor of the two planets' average income with a distance factor thrown into the equation to make things interesting (after all, exotic goods from far away fetch a higher price than those available from the local grocery store). Then facilities like Manufacturing Centre (uses a certain amount of resources each turn but boosts trade income by X%), could be built. Others like Galactic Bank, Foreign Exchange, Distribution Centre, etc could be built which would all boost the trade income. Resarch in trade technology could also provide a boost. Tricky thing is though, the income boost is for you only. So say you have a trade route pulling in 10 Galactic Credits a turn. The empire you have the trade route with, all other factors being equal, also makes 10GC a turn. But, after building a bunch of the above facilities, the total bonus for that route is say, 100%. So, that trade route is now making you 20GC a turn, while the other guy still only gets 10. AND, if all the trade facilities you build also increase the income earned from the planet, the net increase will be even more!

So, what it all boils down to is that with money in SE5, small empires, with a bit of shrewd negotiation would be able to make large ammounts of money which could they could then buy raw resources required to build the ships needed to protect themselves from those not interested in trading. And given how much we all love the underdog, is that really something you'd like to have missing from SE5?