General How often does mail arrive at the local Starport?

[kilemall]

Isn't that how technology advances work...each advance pushes the previous one out of the market and concentrates power in the hands of those who can manufacture it.

High-Tech is ubiquitously available because it displaces locally produced stuff. Those TL-15 industrial worlds sell everywhere. and the lower-tech guys take the niches - or use cheap labour to make the high-tech stuff using tools imported from elsewhere and maintained with parts from elsewhere. One of the oddities of Traveller economics is the existence of imperial goods from TLs other than 15!

Hmmm, I could agree with major starship parts or six figure grav vehicles- not so much consumer items that are not high value and compact.

I’ve posted several studies based on CT transport and IND speculation pricing effects where IND products can go across sectors and still crush local industry. We can go over it again, but suffice to say there is a long multiparsec reach for finished goods.

But that range diminishes with the per ton value drop in pricing. By the time it is in the 4 digit range, it’s almost not worth a subsector trip.

The other relevant assumption I use is that Non-IND worlds by definition don’t make their own products and so TL is more an indication of the value of exports to buy imported goods.

 

[Spinward Flow]

The other relevant assumption I use is that Non-IND worlds by definition don’t make their own products

This is somewhat true.
If you look at the Speculative Goods table in LBB2.81, you'll notice a pattern with respect to Industrial vs Non-industrial modifiers.

Non-industrial worlds tend to be the point of origin for raw materials.
Industrial worlds tend to be the point of origin for finished goods.

Ideally speaking, if you want to "win the trading game" what you REALLY want as a speculative trader is a cluster of worlds with a variety of trade codes to them:
Industrial / Non-industrial
Rich / Poor
Agricultural / Non-agricultural

An absolutely ideal circumstance would be to have all 6 of these trade codes within 2 parsecs of each other, so that you could J2 from any one of them to any of the 5 others and REALLY clean up on arbitrage speculation almost every single time.

Of course, that kind of "mercantile convenience" almost never happens, but you can get somewhat close to that ideal in various locations around the Spinward Marches, although it almost always winds up requiring a 2J2 capability to make it practical (in terms of "reach" required to navigate past obstacles).

 

[whartung]

Isn't that how technology advances work...each advance pushes the previous one out of the market and concentrates power in the hands of those who can manufacture it.

To a point. You also get to the point when the engineering and is done and it's just replication.

Consider motors today, the fundamentals are the same, 4 stroke, 2 stroke, etc. But with modern tech (notably electronics), the motors are more efficient and better performing. Modern pickup trucks are running 4 cylinder turbocharged motors producing enough power and better torque more efficiently than the classic V8s. Better engineering and better manufacturing improves performance, increases lifetime, lowers maintenance.

Meanwhile, the costs of production for the lesser ones get cheaper and cheaper. There's less need to earn back development costs, tooling costs are essentially maintenance rather than new development, etc. Competitors show up that simply take your motors apart, duplicate the design, and machine their own parts. The tech becomes commoditized, to the point that innovators must continuously improve in order to profit from development rather than simple race to the bottom manufacturing.

 

[infojunky]

Meanwhile, the costs of production for the lesser ones get cheaper and cheaper.

Also note lower tech engines are easier to remanufacture/manufacture at the small shop level. On My family farm we are still using trucks and tractors that date back to the 1930's or so. A couple of the trucks are a bit older, but they have been rebuilt so often that many of the running parts including the engines have been rebuilt by hand so many times that the parts are essentially less than 10 years old. Couple that many modern engine bits can and are added to older styles of engines to make them perform similar to current manufacture.

 

[Condottiere]

The trend seems to be electrical motors for automobiles, whereas I heard a complaint that American manufacturers have actually optimized the internal combustion motor so aren't keen to have the goal posts shift.

And then I hear that you had cars that had electrical motors, a century back.

And sometimes it's just more efficient, however that is defined, to just buy a new copy and junk the old one.

 

[infojunky]

The trend seems to be electrical motors for automobiles, whereas I heard a complaint that American manufacturers have actually optimized the internal combustion motor so aren't keen to have the goal posts shift.

Consider this, a petrol engine can be more efficient when designed for a specific operating band. This is one of the reasons Most Locomotives are Diesel electrics i.e. hybrids.

While gearing can help performance the up and down cycle on engines produces the most wear.

 

[Spinward Flow]

I heard a complaint that American manufacturers have actually optimized the internal combustion motor so aren't keen to have the goal posts shift.

It's the old sunk costs problem.

The R&D plus supply chain logistical tail has received HEAVY INVESTMENT over the past century.
Switching from Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to electric drive takes all of that engineering talent in the pipeline and supply chain and ... throws it in the trash.

It's the modern day equivalent to switching from horse & carriage to the Model T.
There were LOTS of enterprises invested in horses and horse drawn carriages ... and then when the Model T arrived, the addressable market for horse & carriage evaporated to less than 10% of its former size within a decade. Specialists crafting buggy whips essentially "disappeared" from the national economy.

The same kind of PHASE DISRUPTION is happening now in the automobile industry.
OF COURSE they don't want the goal posts to shift on them!



Then again, Kodak wasn't all that interested in seeing the technology of photography shift from analog film to digital.
Blackberry and Nokia weren't all that interested in seeing the technology of phones switch from DUMB to SMART with the iPhone.
Horse powered transportation wasn't all that interested in seeing automobile technology and petroleum fuels drive them out of business.
Newspapers had to compete with Radio. Radio had to compete with Television. Now Television has to compete with the Internet.
Live voice calls between individuals are declining in favor of emails and text messages.

History is littered with incumbent interests who essentially have a "lock" on How Things Are getting disrupted by a new innovation and essentially replaced.

Welcome to the S-Curve of mass adoption disrupting incumbent industries.

 

[Condottiere]

Disrupting the status quo.

The other aspect is timing, introduction of the technology when the consumers are prepared, or incentivized, to utilize it.

 

[aramis]

At that point you're talking about a Planned Economy.

Not necessarily; there is a spectrum between total free unregulated market and planned economy. Price fixing is really somewhere in the middle.

Take a look at the records of the Office of Price Administration (1943-1948)... they did a survey, and fixed prices based upon the survey, without actually planning/dictating production. They set maximum prices for labor and for goods. They did not set production quotas (at least not in AK, Hawaii, and the Pacific Coast), This meant certain items were underproduced, and others over-produced - it was legal to sell below the Maximum Legal Price, and some shops did exactly that to get business.

 

[Commander Truestar]

So....Ignoring the fuel question, etc....

IMTU, I blend LBB/MT Canon and my own impressions.

On the X-Boat network: (The easy part)
Every nexus has an ISS X-Boat Waystation supporting XBoat Tenders, S class Couriers and service craft
(As for how jump 1 tenders and jump 2 couriers cross Jump 3+ spaces......Simple logic: Carriers - Either ISS or Imperial Navy owned)

Each system will have a given number of X-Boats on the ready based on the number of systems within 4 parsecs which are on the X-Boat routes
So, the Lanth system only has two other systems within 4 parsecs: Ghandi and D'Ganzio
That means they have enough X-boats on alert to jump every 4 hours...6 boats by 2 worlds = 12 boats
Plus two boats for backup

Now, Rhylanor would have boats for the direct connections: Equus and Jae Tellona and other nexus systems within 4 parsecs: Celepina and Risek


The hard part are the worlds not on the network.
What makes is hard is the question of traffic.
whenever I ask about that, people hand me the 'tonnage per year' and told me to 'figure it out'....

So, ignoring that data, Calit (Vilis) has half a million population, a thin atmo and is two parsecs from the Naval Base at Denotam
But, Calit is administered from Denotam, so they get a courier from Denotam once every 2 to 3 days

Then, look at Byret (Mora) with a thick atmosphere and nearly a Billion people under an Impersonal Bureaucracy.
They're a petrochem-tech world with industry and two parsecs away from both Resten and Fosey...both on the X-boat routes.
Under the circumstances, that world can afford to subsidize a ship, so they get ships regularly.
What is regularly? I'd say every three to four days

Next, we go to Catuz (Mora)
Barely an atmosphere, no water, ~50,000 people in a democracy......they can't "buy a ship's time"

So, According to the OTU, what's a world to do?
In this case, those merchants who have had X-mail safes installed must take the time, during their regular itinerary, to visit the undeserved worlds.

So, a ship may not call for a month or so, but eventually one of the ships working that part of the subsector will detour from their more profitable regular schedule to call on the world.

So, Catuz gets a ship once a month or so while Byret gets one every 3 to 4 days and Calit gets a regular schedule of military vessels usually two times a week.

The good news for Captains calling at Catuz can count on the local government hoping to hire them for jobs they need a starship to do.....can we say adventure hook?