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OTU Only: Theory on Nobility

So in the OTU the Imperium is described as being a sort of "Technocratic Feudalist" governance where Nobles basically help run things. Additionally the local governments for a planet have their own sort of governance that may not exactly match up with the Imperium. So that leads me to a few theories based off this sort of understanding.

Theory 1: McDonalds
This sort of ties into my understanding that the model of government i.e. the Technocratic Feudalist model is basically just akin to McDonalds but the managers are Hereditary nobility. That being the case the theory I have is each noble basically is responsible for their own plot of land and the land itself is the only thing that pays the tithes to the Imperium (the local planet still needs to have some autonomy through taxes and what have you). That being the case I think that these plots of lands basically just can do whatever they want so long as they bring wealth or influence to the Imperium (such as a nobles plot of land being dedicated to be the equivalent of Hollywood, Silicon Valley, New York City, or so on). A noble in this model does not necessarily need to (or want to) own a star port they just need to meet their Imperial obligation on whatever plot of land they have. With petty nobles being only responsible for their own plots of land and the major nobles will either coordinate between all the nobles and settle disputes or simply act as the permanent representative for the worlds nobility in the Moot.

This model would mean that the Nobility would make money solely off their plot of lands and their own influence such as through NGOs or Corporations (which seems to be backed by the lore).

Theory 2: Legation Cities
This idea is basically that the Nobles are specifically tasked with only administrating Star Ports of a world. So the Nobles run these Star Port towns more akin to Legation cities where they are basically just free ports that allow for wealth and influence to flow through. A planet may work with or against these areas accordingly, and this model also has the benefit of allowing the Imperium to be much more hands off (so for example they might only crack down on the lack of Imperial obligations if it's the nobility. All else? Who cares). Petty nobles in this model may handle either smaller class star ports or any other trading ports (such as Airports, Train Stations, etc.) and Major Nobles will coordinate the grander logistical flow of resources.

This model would mean that the Nobility would make money solely off of how efficiently they operate the port cities and how they are able to effectively coordinate logistics on a planet. More trade = more profits.

Theory 3: Tech Monopoly
This is more backed by the Agent of the Imperium book. Essentially put the Imperium will give only the nobility their knowledge or expertise, or what have you on how to use equipment or technology or so on. From there it is up to the nobility to leverage it accordingly and ensure the planet is not only uplifted by that they swear fealty to the Imperium. This has the benefit of Nobility working with far more unscrupulous governments who (if the world violates sophont rights) they might still sell them weapons or technology or what have you because it just gives them money. Minor nobles in this model will be more middle managers or researchers, while major nobility will be akin to CEOs and direct the attention of the grander picture within their fief (for example a Viscount might tell his nobles to focus on building up the military of a world, or the medicine of the world or what have you).

This model would mean that the Nobility makes money similarly to the first method, but their plot of lands would be far more dedicated to building research centers, or industrial centers (so either Silicon Valley or Ruhr Valley).

Theory 4: All of the above
Basically put all of the theories I listed above are exactly how the Imperial nobility works. It doesn't specifically have one model that is used uniformly across the entire breadth of the Imperium. Perhaps in some regions some models are more in vogue than others, or only specific worlds are only viable for specific models (so a Earth-Like world might be more amenable to a Theory 2 Noble fief, while a mining colony hellhole world that exports raw materials and needs advanced goods necessitates a Theory 3 Noble fief).

Wanted to know what everyones thoughts/feedback/their own fan theories as to how this might work would be.
 
I highly recommend reading through this thread on the Mongoose Traveller forums...

 
I highly recommend reading through this thread on the Mongoose Traveller forums...

Many thanks, I did a skim read through in the thread. All in all, I think that the thread touches on earlier parts of the lore (in which the Imperium was absolutely characterized as being this evil polity). Although despite that it seems like it's ran into the age old answer for literally any Traveller lore question ever asked which is: "It's entirely on how you bring it to the table".
 
My personal take on it is that it's neither good nor evil -- it's just too big to be able to notice or care about such trifling things.

They're the Stationary Bandits. (Wikipedia) If it weren't them, it'd be someone else who could welll be "more evil"/"less good". They've got a pretty good thing going for them, and every incentive to keep it going. Their revenue comes from taxes, which means it's in their interest to keep planetary and regional GDP up, which works out well for most people on the whole.
 
I think there's room for successful world societies in the Imperium, it all boils down to how tightly the noble order squeezes each world. Higher demands on the Nobles for taxes mean higher demands on the populace to provide. If that's not the case then there is room of individual success and opportunity. If everyone has a boot on their neck, not so much.

But its easy to see the interstellar order being quite awful, just that, ideally, not awful enough that nobles have the ability to shield their worlds from it directly.
 
My personal take on it is that it's neither good nor evil -- it's just too big to be able to notice or care about such trifling things.
To expand on that a bit:

My view is that the 3I is analagous to the Rules-Based International Order -- that is, the system of primarily Western international agreements, treaties, and organizations ranging from the Geneva Conventions through the United Nations and International Monetary Fund and so forth -- if the UN was hereditary, and it had the United States' military at its disposal. (The Zhodani are the USSR from back when that was a thing, Vargr are the 3rd World (Unaligned nations) and the Aslan are China and Southeast Asia maybe?)

The Imperial "offer" is defense from external (to the Imperium) threats, limits to internal (to the Imperium) conflicts -- specifically nuclear weapons and near-c impactors -- free flow of shipping and free trade, and to some extent, economic stabilty.

The Imperial "ask" is that member worlds respect the Imperium's authority and its representatives, pay taxes, and provide military assets (and cede control of them) against external threats when necessary.

Economic advice from the Imperial representatives may range from suggetions to mandates depending on the situation, but with the primary consideration being that short-term maximal exploitation is disincentivized by the intergenerational nature of the Imperial Nobility.
 
"My understanding" of Imperial Nobility and their relationship to their Fief(s) is based on the original LBB statement:
"The Imperium does not own worlds. It owns the space between the worlds."

As such, The Imperium has no official role in governing any member world except where an Imperial Interdiction is triggered.
As discussed in more than one book, The Imperium does not tax any world. It just taxes commerce between worlds. Because of that, Imperial agencies most commonly appear on the campus of any world's primary Starport if one exists. If no such port facility of note exists (D, E or X), they then rely on the locals and periodically send Imperial Naval patrols through.

It is my self-defined position where the early Imperium (back in the days of Cleon 1) that trade teams were sent to systems to re-integrate trade relationships. And, as part of this team where the newly reforming Third Imperium was a monarchy, the leader of that team was designated a position of Nobility.
This was done not only to reinforce the leadership role, but also to enforce an expectation of authority in the view of the world either negotiating membership or working with the new member system. So, they are 'Outside" the system involved, but directly related to the relationship between the Imperium and member system.
From there, the point of view of the member world will mostly be "what are you doing to improve me?" and the "assigned nobility" are now forced to play multiple roles. Chief of which is, "how can I get this world better support and tech?"

Now, a point needs to be made here that "what they get" is limited to "what they want"
An example, in the OtU system Pavabid(District 268/Spinward Marches)
This system is owned and controlled by a Theocracy, and is also not a part of the Imperium in the OTU
Because of that, the distribution of technology - especially simple items like communications - are restricted.
Natives on-world are taught that all off worlders are evil and heretics, and only very specially trained and fully trusted citizens can work in the world's ports.
So, in this case what the nobility assigned to "get them to join" can offer is limited to what the world government will let them offer.

This applies to Paya(Aramis/Spinward Marches) where "continued membership" after the asteroid strike also means controlling attempts by those who left the system before the asteroid hit are not allowed to return and the Imperial Navy was granted land on-world (and space in orbit) to create a base in order to support that blockade mission.

More worlds are also to be considered, like one of my regulars - Pimane, where the world has no resources nor any economic value at all.
In those cases, a member of the Nobility is assigned to the world but....what can they do?
Can they offer land on which they can build structures where no land is available in the neighboring system?
And, will the locals accept that or fear the new corporation would come in, build a factory, hire all the locals as workers and then use that control to take over the government?

With those points, the "Modern" nobility have morphed
- from agents working to re-integrate worlds in the Cleon days to a family that started as outsiders trying to serve the world
- to people who are granted a slice off the gross taxation of trade, which they are expected to spend to build up and/or improve conditions in that system

Adding to that, their family has been working in-system and working (from the local point of view) as a philanthropic force so much so that, over the centuries, many of the families have become part of the political machinery. So, you have some nobility who've lived and worked here improving things for the last 500 years, and worked their way up from an advisory Minister to the local ruling family. And, you have other nobility who work hard to maintain "visible air" between their family and the world government.

Added to that, you have nobility who either make it appear they are working to better conditions in-system or - Like the aforementioned Baron of Pimane who spends all his time on Capital dealing with other members of the moot, spending all the money he should be spending to improve his fief on his personal interests, desires and possibly even illegal pursuits. The person who lives in luxury with both a family and a stable of sex-bots and who no citizen of Pimane would know if you swung a frozen cat at them.

So, "how embedded" a nobleperson becomes in the government of their fief is dependent on factors like "how long have we been working with the government?" - "How successful we've been in working with the government?" - "How empathetic have we been and how much we're shared in the suffering when we've failed?"
Or, how much economic force and out-right thuggery has our family been involved with to force our way into their affairs? Have we literally forced our way into their government and how long has it been since then? Have the scars of those conflicts healed over, or are they still fresh and bleeding?

So, from "my point of view", there can be many rich and varied stories that can be woven into the story of the system itself.
And, every Fief holder and Fiefdom can and must be incredibly individual, separate from even other worlds in the same County or Duchy.
 
The Imperium allows... what follow are canon quotes, you should immediately recognise where from

On the frontiers,* extensive home rule provisions allow** planetary populations to choose their own forms of government, raise and maintain armed forces for local security, pass and enforce laws governing local conduct, and regulate (within limits) commerce.
*frontier worlds, not core sector worlds
** allow - grants, authorises, permits

As a result, the lmperium allows a large degree of autonomy to its subject worlds, calling only for some respect for its overall policies, and for a united front against outside pressures.
*allows - grants, authorises, permits
**the worlds are subject worlds... interesting choice, not members, not equals, but subjects...

Individual worlds, and even entire systems, are free to govern themselves as they desire, provided that ultimate power is always accorded the Imperium.* Interstellar government begins at the subsector level- on one world designated the subsector capital. The ruling figure at the subsector capital is a high-ranking noble selected by higher levels of government.** This duke has a free hand in government, and is subject only to broad guidelines from his superiors***. But at the same time, the duke owes fealty to the higher levels of government, ultimately to the Emperor himself.
*the Imperium is the ultimate authority... put another way the "self governing world" is only self governing because the Imperium allows it.
** no one ever claimed this was a liberal rights based democracy did they
*** has to please the higher ups, not the "member" worlds


The lmperium is best considered* to rule the space that separates the stars rather than the worlds themselves. Individual worlds are left to their own devices, providing** they pay their taxes, acknowledge the power of the Imperium, and obey the basic laws it promulgates. The lmperium wields power in space, protecting trade, encouraging travel and commerce, and controlling diplomatic relations. lmperial power is present on worlds in the form of consulates, bureaucratic offices, and bases; occasionally larger enclaves of lmperial power are placed where they can
enhance the empire's strength.***

*note this is Imperial propaganda, we have already established that subject worlds only have what the Imperium allows...
**and if they don't obey the Imperium's rules then the Imperium will drop rocks on them.
***so an empire that rules no worlds has enormous power and must be obeyed or else.

Once the willing systems were integrated into the Imperium, it became necessary to force membership* on additional systems as the empire expanded.
*forced membership doesn't sound all that nice does it

To each archduke, he assigned the continuing pacification* of the domain's many systems, and their integration into the Imperium.
*continue to force worlds to join up or else

Pacification Campaigns (76-120): A series of economic, diplomatic, and military operations directed at forcing membership* in the lmperium upon those worlds which resisted the initial efforts to annex them. Although the campaigns were predominantly economic and diplomatic in nature,
the lmperium was not averse to using force when peaceful methods failed.** lmperial battlefleets and ground forces rarely failed when brought to bear***. By 120, the pacification campaigns ended, and the initial phase of the Imperium's growth came to a close.
* forced membership, how liberal
** join or we drop rocks on you, how enlightened
*** might makes right and the victor writes the history.

It fell to Martin III to crush the llelish Revolt (418 to 435) and its challenge to Imperial authority

thou shalt not challenge Imperial authority...
 
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It just taxes commerce between worlds.
Just to nit, I have not seen this tax materialize in any of the trade systems of any of the games I've looked at.

You would think this would be a first class topic among trader captains as Strephon keeps wanting his cut. About piracy and how they don't pay taxes. About enforcement operations against traders that are in arrears.

This is different from something like "why don't we have insurance" or any of the other high level financial tools that folks use when working with assets worth millions of credits. Taxes would be in your face, an actual line item in the "Ship Economics" section. As they say: "Life, Death, and Taxes".

Sure, LBB2 was "pre-imperium". MT wasn't. TNE wasn't. T4 wasn't. We should be seeing long screeds about how "I play LBB2 so I don't have to pay taxes".

If you want to put the character of the Imperium right up in the light, taxation is a great place to start.

"I like to trade in the frontier regions because the taxes are lower. Taxes in Core are 3% higher."

But I haven't seen it.
 
My take on nobility in Traveller is it is a two-tier system within the game.

The upper tier of this consists of the real political power within the 3I and really doesn't exist elsewhere. That is this type of nobility is the traditional, inherited, political system of the 3I. Within this part of nobility are Dukes and above. These are the nobles that rule subsectors, sectors, and the empire itself. They hold real political power and are the movers and shakers of politics in the 3I.

In game terms, they're background, not someone players would ever interact with. The closest players would come to interaction is they are hired, etc., by some underling / staffer / assistant of the noble in question to do something in the name of the noble or the like. Characters might attend some public event where such a noble is present to do something like give a speech or be seen. These nobles also form a closed society of sorts where their positions are handed down ensuring that the power remains in the same hands for generations.

The lower end of nobility consist primarily of persons who have risen to positions of great wealth, influence, or otherwise public notice--say a celebrity--and have caught the eye of the upper nobility for their actions. The more influencial they are at whatever they do, the higher they are placed in the noble rankings. This system is in place to ensure that powerful people in society know and stay in their place within the overall order of society. On individual worlds outside the 3I, the lower end nobility exists in one form or another as well.

Everything up through Count is in this lower set of noble ranking. These nobles have limited political power beyond their area of influence or are only influencial on a single world or system in most cases. So, you might have a knight that is a prominent scientist that discovered something really important and it's more a status symbol. A baron of industry would be someone in the top ranks of say a mega corporation who has influence across the empire because of that position.

Two things I also do with nobility are:

1. If a player is a noble, they have to be and act like one or there are very bad consequences for not doing so. So, your character is a baronette? You better have a small NPC retinure following you around. You better dress the part too. When you travel, you can't take 'economy class' or 'coach.' You can't hobnob with commoners.

2. They will get quests, missions, and other stuff forced on them from higher nobility. They don't get to say no to them either. Along with this, nobility gets a pass on many things that would get non-noble commoners tossed in jail or prison for. If for example, you are to quell an uprising that is in the making on some world, murdering the leadership of that uprising is perfectly justified when you're a noble. You get to act as judge, jury, and executioner to carry out the will of the emperor and maintain the security and peace of the 3I.

In MTU, nobility has real and tangible benefits but it comes with lots of responsibilities too.
 
Just to nit, I have not seen this tax materialize in any of the trade systems of any of the games I've looked at.

You would think this would be a first class topic among trader captains as Strephon keeps wanting his cut. About piracy and how they don't pay taxes. About enforcement operations against traders that are in arrears.

This is different from something like "why don't we have insurance" or any of the other high level financial tools that folks use when working with assets worth millions of credits. Taxes would be in your face, an actual line item in the "Ship Economics" section. As they say: "Life, Death, and Taxes".

Sure, LBB2 was "pre-imperium". MT wasn't. TNE wasn't. T4 wasn't. We should be seeing long screeds about how "I play LBB2 so I don't have to pay taxes".

If you want to put the character of the Imperium right up in the light, taxation is a great place to start.

"I like to trade in the frontier regions because the taxes are lower. Taxes in Core are 3% higher."

But I haven't seen it.
Every once in awhile, Taxes in Traveller will pop into my head and bother me, but like many other things Traveller, I just put it in the background where it belongs. My hand wave is that the money made by the Characters is what they get after taxes, so I don't worry about taxes (in Traveller at least).
 
Every once in awhile, Taxes in Traveller will pop into my head and bother me, but like many other things Traveller, I just put it in the background where it belongs.
Well that's kind of the crux of it.

If the Imperium is this benevolent dictator, then, sure, taxes are the background. It's like a little persistent ringing in your ears, not quite placeable.

However, if not, if the Imperium is this galactic spanning hell, then, oh boy, taxes would be the start of it. The beginning of "Don't forget, you're in the Imperium and the Imperium is choosing to not kill you today. Share and enjoy!". No longer a ringing, but loud buzz. Always there, hands out everywhere. Don Strephon wants his cut. To paraphrase "Good Fellas" regarding getting into business with Pauly: "**** you, pay me."

While the classes would be stratified, upward mobility by fiat, the friction would always be there. You'd KNOW you're "not one of them", not getting what they get, you're the "them" in "us vs them". No direct contact, but absolutely presence.

Until the rebellious posters start showing up, and the purges and crackdowns begin...and the boot on your neck starts to squeeeeeze even harder.
 
Every once in awhile, Taxes in Traveller will pop into my head and bother me, but like many other things Traveller, I just put it in the background where it belongs. My hand wave is that the money made by the Characters is what they get after taxes, so I don't worry about taxes (in Traveller at least).
The way I handle that is this:

Taxes are primarily a local affair. A planet or system charges whatever they charge their residents.

Above that, taxes become an affair of nobility. Nobles--ALL nobles--are expected to make fealty to the emperor on the 300th day of the Imperial year. This means every noble, from knight up, will pay up. At the same time the system of tracking this is top down. A ceremony is held locally at some level, planet, system, sub-system, at which every noble makes their offering (in cash or goods) to the emperor. They do it in front of all the other nobles present. There is 'paperwork' that accompanies this.

How lower nobles get the cash to pay into this is totally up to them. They're free to oppress and loot their commoners. They can impose taxes on stuff like any normal government does. They can just grab the cash out of the register so-to-speak if they want. The noble system doesn't care. It cares that you pay your expected share--OR ELSE!

The amount offered varies but also increases as your noble rank increases. For a knight, a few thousand in credits is the usual offering. If you want to buy your way up, you offer an obscener amount to get noticed. Being broke or unable to make what's considered the minimum... payola, bribe, payoff, here will get you noticed too in a VERY bad way. "Removal" of your noble title is not unheard of (you are murdered / assassinated to make your embarrassment go away). Like I said in an earlier post: With nobility comes responsibilities.

If you know you can't pay up, you can always "volunteer" for something like a suicidal mission for the emperor to make up for it. You get to go out a hero of the empire and don't embarrass yourself or family name. Of course, by the time this hits the duke level of things, you are talking billions in credits flowing in. And, of course, there's plenty of intrigue and corruption to go around and if you discover some of that, it can make for an interesting play scenario...

Since this system takes time to move the cash up the chain in the empire, there is a continuous flow of it headed to Core. Dukes and above will generally skim some of it, or the excess to what was expected to come in, for their operations at the sub-sector / sector level of things. Thus, the sub-sector / sector bureaucracy has tens to hundreds of billions for operations while the empire as a whole has trillions. The whole system is, at best, quasi-public. That is outside the nobility, people know it exists but are likely to have never been to a noble's Emperor's Day "celebration" even if they go to some local, public, one like a parade and carnival-like festival celebrating it for the commoners.

Very well-connected criminals running cartels and such may very well be participating in the noble side of things and paying into the system to keep the legal government from shutting them down. Lots of corruption makes for good game play and lots of scenarios involving gunfire.
 
It is worth taking a look at the Ilelish revolt

"In 418, the government of the Ilelish system, capital of a sector by the same name, declared its independence from the Imperium.

The leaders of the Ilelish Revolt sought to create a separate state that took a much heavier hand in world affairs, standardising Law Levels, governance and access to technology. This was a crime that invoked the high justice clause, enforced by Imperial military forces.
By 420, 12 other high-population worlds across six subsectors had joined the Ilelish Revolt

The Imperium reinforced the Ilelish Sector Fleet with elements of the Dagudashaag and Gushemege fleets and blockaded the worlds involved
in the revolt. Most surrendered with minimal violence and Ilelish was the last to fall in 435. To prevent future revolts, the Imperium made an example of Ilelish. They evacuated the lush equatorial region where most of its population lived and blasted it into oblivion, reducing a once vibrant world into a highly populated backwater. The capital of the domain was moved to Dlan. Nearly seven centuries later, Ilelish remains an ecologically
and economically devastated world.

The destruction of Ilelish was intended to be an abject lesson: defy the Imperium at your own peril."

After the dust had settled the emperor gave this address to the Moot...

The peerage is responsible for the administration of the domains, sectors, subsectors, worlds and continents*. If they fail to do their jobs, they risk the integrity of the Imperium itself**. Emperor Cleon built this empire on the foundation of duty and honour. Without it, we have nothing.

* so Imperial nobility is now responsible for the administration of world continents... who controls the world again?
** and had just demonstrated the steps the Imperium would take to maintain the inegrity of the Imperium.

The Imperium allows...

just never forget who has ultimate power.
 
Just to nit, I have not seen this tax materialize in any of the trade systems of any of the games I've looked at.
You, Sir, are 100% correct IMO...

IMTU, I consider it an undocumented part of the trading system
Where all purchases and sales are tracked by "in-system authorities" and collected from the local merchant like a tariff
So, where someone sells my player crew a cargo, the seller is taxed from what they were paid
And where someone buys something from my player crew, they pay an additional tax on that purchase

Because chasing tens of thousands of starships which are mostly "on the edge" free traders would be madness!!!

Madness, I tell you!!!
 
All your trading is done in the starport.

The tariffs and taxes kick in when the goods are moved from the starport to the world itself by the merchant who bought your goods.

If you land outside the starport and conduct trade then be ready to answer some serious questions if the authorities decide to investigate your illegal trading. As in immediate arrest, confiscation of all assets, and then shipped off to prison... no you don't get a trial, this is the Imperium.
 
There are a couple of points that do provide a look at taxation.

The starport fees can have a percentage that goes to the Imperium rather than strictly services, similar to a port tax today.

The CT TCS has a whole world per capita taxation structure for funding military forces predicated on TL, starport, government type and population.

The money comes out of the world populace but doesn’t elaborate how it is collected by what principle. I would extrapolate that for the 3I hands off policy this is a world concern- may become more of a thing if travellers venture past the extrality line and conduct business.

This is for military support and has a government war/peace modifier. Refs would have to decide if that’s the only tax the Imperium collects.

I would suggest a commerce tax to fund non military operations built on the same TL/starport/ population matrix but ignore the government war behavior part. Adjust the per capita number or multiplier to your view of the percentage of the Imperium that isn’t military- personally I would cut it in half in line with the hands off promote commerce theme.

Players operating as gentlemen traders or factors may get into the weeds of world taxation policy, this way it’s a play choice not RAW imperative.

Makes sense to not hit the starship operators with taxes and collect at import/export tariff time. Allows for the bare bones pricing structure, simplified ops, and they aren’t inherently motivated to smuggle, all risk no gain. The shipper will have to pay extra for any ‘special handling’.

There might be another level to taxation with corporations with interstellar operations- a percentage of taxes that they pay at the subsector level, and another for sector level ops. Very minimal, maybe 1% gross income for each. The emperor’s ownership percentage for megacorps covers Imperium wide companies.

This would be a level of taxation that most players would not deal with unless they are operating a subsector/sector concern. It would highlight the limits of the Imperium with only so much funding for intervention, LE or projects.

Which brings up a potentially interesting take- the money could go instead to the control of the subsector or sector duke for disbursement with all the shenanigans that could happen.
 
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Trade isn't taxed, one sees how the Imperium takes money from the worlds in Striker:

On Imperial worlds, roughly 30% of the total
military budget goes to the lmperium for mainten-
ance of the Imperial military.

Striker Book 2 page 38

This is about their military budget, however as an example, likely they simply take a percentage of the GNP.
 
Off what I am seeing in the Thread here, what I am willing to offer in my own perspective is this:

Lore Discrepancies
Ok so big one is the lore of the Imperium has changed over the years. Originally the Imperium absolutely was characterized as being this more malevolent empire (iirc Strephon was literally described as being a Murderous Shadow Emperor of sorts although I can't remember specifically where I read or heard that from admittedly), but over the years has been more and more characterized as more of just a realistic nation-state: A Trench Coat of various factions and interests all collectively trying to get their own power while uniting under the vague promise of the Empire as being a sort of "Enlightened Realm of Prosperity of both Knowledge and Wealth".

I could go for a classic cop out and say that "Oh these other pieces of lore are actually just XYZ propaganda or what they think of the Imperium" however I don't think that this is the case, I really do just think it's a thing where when the first LBBs came out the Imperium was meant to be a sort of plot driving device (not saying it isn't rn) so because of that it was this vague thing that was generally meant to bring action to the game which is why it's described as not owning any world only the space in-between them (yet in T5 Nobles are described as owning entire collections of star systems).

Where the Imperium is as of this point in the Lore is that the Imperium still is a plot driving device, but ultimately it's character depends more so on where you are in the Imperium. Each region will have it's own character and ergo culture with how it exists in the Empire. However all-in-all the Imperium follow this vague mantra of "To uplift Sophonoty" while also being totally willing to bend that rule if it means Imperial power breaking. In the Agent of the Imperium book the Empress Margaret I was totally willing to glass various Geonee worlds because they had managed to out-politic her into gaining an Autonomous Zone.

This ultimately leads into:

Imperium Big
The first response I got to this thread has my favorite answer which is just "Imperium Big". Of course what is meant by that is the Imperium doesn't have as much of a unified nature more so a unified guideline. You can't make nukes, or violate sophont rights (so slavery, genocide, trafficking etc.) however all else it really boils down to the character of each Sector, their "Astropolitical" realities and so on how the local nobility behaves or what their general culture is like.

*This is as of Mongoose 2nd Ed as it is the most up-to-date*
- Core: Basically the Traditional image of the Imperium: Nobles who want to squeeze every citizen of everything because it means they get more power in the Moot. Power is everything in the Core
- Spinwards Marches: The Nobility is more fractured and again depends on location. More Corewards subsectors are more worried about another war with the Zhodani and Vargr so because of that they run those regions to prepare for military actions. Rimwards leans towards supporting their corewards allies in the event of war.
- Trailing Frontier: Not facing any real threats at all the Nobility just got lazy and corrupt leading to the entire region being severely underdeveloped. Corruption is endemic.
- Solomani Rim: The Nobility on the borders of the Solomani might lean way harder in on sophont rights and cracking down on corrupt nobles or anyone who violates sophont rights (dealing with the Solomani guerilla cells on the other hand is a different matter).
- Vland: Classical Vilani, as such I imagine they run this region very akin to old school vilani empire, (Way more like a classical empire).

These are just a few of my thoughts on the Empire, it's nature, and so on.
 
All your trading is done in the starport.

The tariffs and taxes kick in when the goods are moved from the starport to the world itself by the merchant who bought your goods.

If you land outside the starport and conduct trade then be ready to answer some serious questions if the authorities decide to investigate your illegal trading. As in immediate arrest, confiscation of all assets, and then shipped off to prison... no you don't get a trial, this is the Imperium.
It is my opinion that - as supported by a great number of Traveller written items - trade is organized based on the system's tech and wealth.
Where there is one "primary" starport and a number of secondary starports.

In JTAS 22(GDW), the article "From Port to Jump Point" the author, in part, wrote:
"Also, for worlds with a population of 9 or A (in the billions) and a starport type of A or B, place one starport for every five billion increment in population." In the games "Invasion Earth" and "Tarsus" also operate on this paradigm.

Added to that, additional GDW and other written items state that everything from large local organizations to Mega-Corporations on-world may have their own specialized ports. Added to that, it is stated that each or many nations on balkanized worlds would have their own ports.

So, IMO, trade can technically happen "anywhere in a system".
Based on that, IMTU, the ports must track all traffic in-system, then local authorities have compliance systems where those who do trade with visiting ships must self-report (complete with implicit corruption) their trading activities and owed taxes.

As for
Trade isn't taxed, one sees how the Imperium takes money from the worlds in Striker:

On Imperial worlds, roughly 30% of the total
military budget goes to the lmperium for mainten-
ance of the Imperial military.

Striker Book 2 page 38

This is about their military budget, however as an example, likely they simply take a percentage of the GNP.

It is again my opinion that is not a case of planetary taxation
I see it as a support for the cooperative defense of the system.
In that case, 70% of the military budget is devoted to locally controlled assets and staffing
Then the remaining 30% is provided to the Imperial Military to cover that part of the expense the empire is spending on local defense.
 
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