Understanding Trade & Commerce

OVERVIEW
Trade is an important aspect of space-based industry, and no established civilization can survive in its absence.  Following in the wake of the Insurrection most market indices in the corporate world were quick to collapse, resulting in lost fortunes for countless investors.  In light of the chaos that has become of the financial community, several enterprising opportunists, both Resistance sympathizers and industrial giants alike, have established cashless barter systems aboard orbital supply docks, relying on the physical value of goods in a particular territory for exchange.



SUPPLY & DEMAND
By virtue of the sporadic distribution of primary resources in known space, many goods that abound in certain territories are not naturally available in others, and vice versa.  Each planet is typically biased toward one or two abundant resources, often at the expense of others.  This variance in supply and demand forms the basis of interstellar trade.

For example, compare the differences between The Cradle and Sanctuary.  The red values denote resources that are supplied by the territory and can be purchased, but will not be accepted.  Conversely, green resources are in demand and may be sold to the territory, but cannot be purchased from it.  

You will notice that both territories supply what the other demands.  If 100 noble metals are traded for 200 ceramics at the supply dock in The Cradle, an arbitrageur would be interested in selling 150 of those ceramics to the supply dock in Sanctuary for more noble metals, meaning 100 resource net profit per trade.  If one of the territories is hostile to your faction, you can make use of supply docks in neutral territories to trade with other merchants directly who do have access.