# Economic Systems

> Design fictional economies — trade routes, currency systems, resource scarcity, and the relationship between economic structure and power. Use when building a world's economy, designing currency or trade, creating scarcity-driven conflict, or when cultures-societies Pillar 2 (Economy) needs depth beyond the basics.

- Skill: `npbuilds/economic-systems` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add npbuilds/economic-systems`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/npbuilds/economic-systems/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: npbuilds (https://skillmd.com/u/npbuilds)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/npbuilds/economic-systems

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# Economic Systems — What Gets Traded and Who Gets Rich

Economics is the substrate of power. How exchange is structured determines who has power and what conflicts are inevitable. This skill expands Pillar 2 (Economy) from `cultures-societies` into a full design methodology.

## The Five Questions

### 1. What Is Scarce?
Scarcity determines value, which determines power. Resource scarcity (water, metal, fuel), fantasy-system scarcity (magic costs life force), knowledge scarcity (literacy restricted), labor scarcity, or post-scarcity (Banks' Culture — eliminates economic conflict, shifts drama to status and meaning).

### 2. How Is Value Exchanged?
Barter, commodity money, fiat currency, debt/credit, gift economy, reputation economy, soul/essence currency (Gladstone), labor tokens. Each system implies different cultural values and power structures.

### 3. Who Controls Production?
Feudal (land owners), mercantile (merchant class), plantation/extraction (colonial), communal (Le Guin's Anarres), fantasy-system-mediated (mage-aristocracy), corporate (cyberpunk).

### 4. How Does Geography Shape Trade?
Resources cluster geographically. Chokepoints create power. Trade creates cultural mixing. Trade routes shape alliances.

### 5. What's the Relationship Between Wealth and Power?
Can you buy office? Does power create wealth? Can fantasy ability generate wealth? The answer shapes the entire political system.

## Innovative Currency Systems in Fiction

| Work | Currency | Why It Works |
|------|----------|-------------|
| Gladstone's *Craft Sequence* | Soulstuff | Economic transactions become existential |
| Sumner-Smith's *Towers* | Magic as currency | Magical gift = wealth; ungifted = homeless |
| Banks' *Culture* | Post-scarcity | Eliminates economic drama; forces character drama |
| Bear's *Eternal Sky* | Trade route control | Trade is money, money is armies, armies are power |
| Le Guin's *Dispossessed* | No property, labor-based | Economic system IS the thought experiment |

## Anti-Patterns

1. "Medieval gold" default — no one asks where gold comes from or why it's valuable
2. Infinite adventurer wealth — no inflation, taxation, or political consequences
3. Everyone is a farmer except protagonists — functional economies need artisans, merchants, clergy
4. Magic exists but doesn't affect economy — every fantasy element has economic implications
5. Trade without trade routes — goods appear in markets with no supply chain

## Relationship to Other Skills
- **Cultures-Societies**: Expands Pillar 2. **Faction Design**: Factions form around economic interests. **Geography-Ecology**: Determines resource distribution. **Magic-System-Design**: Fantasy system's economic implications must be traced. **Extrapolation Engine**: Run cascading consequence drills on economic axioms.