The Commons System

Read more: A Social Economy

The commons is Vekllei’s domestic moneyless economy. It is perhaps Vekllei’s most enigmatic and celebrated national feature, and distinguishes the country from all others. Vekllei people are generally very aware of their unique circumstances and are not uncritical or completely satisfied – nonetheless, the commons could not work without their effort and enthusiasm, and its ongoing success testifies to the comfort and dignity it has brought Vekllei people across the Atlantic.

The Vekllei economy exists in two pieces: as a services market, dominated by wandering interest and cooperation, and as an industrial market, which comprises the bulk of manufacturing and planned production.

While a social economy has social forms, and the economic psychology of the commons is discussed elsewhere on this site, it has tangible, conventional and straightforward economic logic. This article illustrates the commons first as it is lived, and then as an economic engine.

Everyday Life #

Retail Operations #

Goods that are produced through automated systems are distributed to residents through retail channels that superficially resemble conventional commerce. The Commonwealth maintains department stores, shops and markets that function like their foreign counterparts, operating without payment at point of sale.

A Vekllei department store looks much like any other, with clothing sections, home goods, electronics and cosmetics across the floor, staff to help customers, displays and dressing rooms. There are, however, no cash registers, and the language of commerce is strangely intact – someone in the Commonwealth “buys” a shirt, a shop “sells” a watch, and so on.

In this country, residents take what they want and leave. Because of the abundance and availability of staples, their personal economic value is nil and so they are consumed not as traditional products but for more immediate and intangible reasons.

Foreign tourists are handled differently, on package rates that cover their estimated consumption, with bag searches on the way out. Residents are trusted, since most people regulate their own consumption. Abuse, whether out of malice or insanity, is usually obvious and is punished as the crime of misdemeanour hoarding. Barter between people is legal and common, but using a good as money – keeping it to trade on, or as a store of value – is a separate crime known as structuring.

An average family of three in Oslola consumes the following each month:

Category	Typical month	Accounted value (✦)
Groceries	About 120kg	450
Restaurants and cafés	About 18 meals	170
Clothing	A few new items	80
Household goods	Mostly replacements	370
Personal items	Mostly toiletries and medicines	150
Entertainment	Mostly cinema and books	120
Total		1,340

These are basically shop values, taken from what comparable goods sell for abroad, which means the cost of distribution is already included. Multiplying the average value across 8.7 million households in the country equates to ✦140 billion in annual retail distribution. This remains separate from housing, utilities, transport and services requiring human effort, which make up most of the ✦650 billion distributed to residents each year, which makes up the general expense of the commons system.

Some shops carry more than others, since wealth is geographic rather than individual. Towns with successful exporting firms are able to stock foreign luxuries, which are taken as freely as anything else (including by nonresidents; see export privileges below).

Participatory Production #

Read more: Ludic Productivity

Beyond the industrial system, small-scale production fills the gaps, run by independent operators. These are businesses that do not charge, and not romantic gift economies in the traditional imagination.

Example

With the help of the country’s logistics and automatic systems, much of the tedious and laborious aspects of work have been reduced. The structure of work is much different, but the shape of work is recognisable to foreigners. A neighbourhood café looks the same as anywhere else; as does the bakery; as does the office. No payment occurs, and usually no barter takes place. They operate in the straightforward psychology of the ludic economy – for its own sake, and the pleasure and prestige it transfers.

Musicians, mechanics, seamstresses and artists work in much the same way, as does basically anyone whose labour is self-directed and occasional.

Their work is irregular, varied and not economically significant, but it is an important part of community life and provides much of what industry cannot. There are material rewards too, since cafés, restaurants and coffee shops often come with an apartment upstairs and a central location, and for a certain kind of person after a certain kind of life it suits well.

In abstract, this sector is the anarchistic element of the commons, and is what keeps it flexible. It is estimated to be 15 to 20 per cent of consumption, but sits entirely outside formal accounting and so cannot really be measured (see National Accounts). This informal economy is also the primary place of barter in Commonwealth life.

Labour Mobility & Employment #

Read more: The Work Week

Employment in Vekllei is unusually mobile. Plenty of workers hold several jobs at once – a lifeguard on Monday, a clerk on Tuesday, a librarian on Thursday and Friday. This is not thought of as odd or shameful, and is basically how most people work.

Working patterns (share of workers)

Pattern	Share
One full-time job	32%
Several part-time jobs	38%
Full-time job and side work	21%
Portfolio career	9%

This sort of thing is not especially high value work, but it is very difficult to automate and so is counterintuitively an area of great attention in the country. Employment is registered with the National Economic Register (NER), and satisfies the social expectations of municipal life.

The structure of portfolio work has important effects beyond its modest economic value, because it disperses people throughout many parts of society, and introduces many types of people in different workplaces. Class is not just an economic fact; it is a cultural feature, and one that the Commonwealth’s social economy is particularly sensitive to. In this sense, exposure to different economic contexts helps dissolve it, and the variety helps keep work from becoming dull.

Benefits of Work #

Most of the luxuries of Commonwealth life are found at work. Because of the use of aggregate remuneration, companies keep a share of their surplus for their own workplace and municipality, and spend it on things for their members – clubhouses, sailing clubs, better tools, and imported niceties (chocolate, cigars, etc). The most prized of these is travel. A company will often take its workforce and their families on holiday together, and large bureaus are known for competing to buy out foreign resorts or a whole hotel for its staff each summer.

Incorporation and Services #

Main articles: Incorporated Areas and Unincorporated Areas

The incorporated/unincorporated distinction is the primary aspect of participation in the commons economy. It is both a geographic and a political distinction. Incorporated municipalities and metropolises are able to trade directly with the state through their aggregate output, as well as negotiate with large firms for investment and export.

Because a municipality’s standing with the state depends on the participation of its residents, those aged 22 to 50 are expected to register an occupation under Regular Service (with the National Economic Register). The occupation can be almost anything – education, caring for children, workplace membership, self-directed economic activity, a likeable nutcase – but it is usually a type of formal employment. The obligation is easily avoided and in practice acts as a form of moral pressure from the state, and failure to register is usually penalised with community service rather than any loss of goods.

Regular Service does not apply in the provinces and other unincorporated areas, which have no municipal corporations and so no legal basis to arrange trade with the state. A family farming their own land there has no specific obligation to society, and receives fewer guarantees from the state as a result.

Incorporation also decides how a place is funded:

	Incorporated municipality	Province
Municipal corporations	Trade output for investment	None
Ground rent	Collected by the municipality	Collected by the republic
Common Subsidy	Funded by the municipality	None
Equalisation transfer	Received by the municipality	Services funded directly by the republic
Registered occupation	Expected under Regular Service	Not required

All citizens – incorporated or not – receive the same basic goods through the same retail networks, hold the same constitutional rights, and travel freely throughout the Commonwealth.

Constitutional Services #

Healthcare, primary and secondary education, public transit and legal services are universal, and even families on isolated homesteads in the Grenadines or Annobon receive healthcare and send their children to school.

Other services are generally geographic, and so vary in quality and character. In an incorporated city, GPs and family doctors are employed by the municipal health council, which also runs the local pharmacy and keeps the records. In the provinces they are employed by the republic’s National Health Authority instead, and a single doctor often covers several villages. These are not just economic differences but reflect different ways of living that are both compatible with the commons system.

Housing & Property #

Main article: Property in Vekllei

NO REALTORS EXCEPT THE STATE ▪ THE COUNTY THE AGENT OF THE STATE ▪ THE ARCHITECT THE AGENT OF THE COUNTY

– Frank Lloyd Wright, Broadacre City

Housing in incorporated communities is allocated through real estate agencies, a process that superficially resembles conventional rental markets but involves no payment.

Read more: Land Titles, Land Sovereignty

Example

In the Commonwealth, tenure is the primary unit of value regarding real estate. It advantages you both in your legal claim to ownership and in your search for a new home within an incorporated area. In this sense, someone who has lived in a home for ten years is advantaged when seeking new housing within the same community, since it provides a tie-breaking advantage. The realtor is kept separate from the municipality to reduce corruption.

Property law in Vekllei recognises three competing claims, in a system known as land sovereignty:

• The Public (the municipality or incorporated area representing community interest)
• The Steward (the resident or firm who lives or works on the land)
• The Land Sovereign (the land itself with independent standing)

Initial occupancy heavily favours the Public through the municipality. After five years, the Steward’s claim strengthens substantially. After fifteen years, Steward claims typically dominate. After twenty-five years, they become nearly uncontestable. The Land Sovereign “owns itself” under Vekllei law and its rights are determined by dedicated courts separate from the state, which provide a check against abuse and also hold a religious, animistic weight in many parts of the country.

In practice, this is ownership without a title. A family that has lived in a home for twenty years possesses it in the Vekllei sense, and can pass it on to their children, though the children still have to establish their own place in the community.

Provincial housing works in much the same way, just without the municipal apparatus, and a farm occupied for a generation is basically the family’s farm. The three claims still apply there, but because the Public is represented by the republican government (and not a local assembly), oversight is relaxed and stewardship tends to be secured much earlier.

Transport & Travel #

Main article: Travel, CommRail

All Commonwealth citizens travel freely and without constraint. Local transit ( trains, trams, buses) are provided universally and require nothing. Air travel is booked through the municipality or the workplace in incorporated communities, and in rural areas usually with the local operator directly. The process for incorporated and provincial residents is basically the same.

Economic Structure #

The commons separates goods from services. Goods, referred to interchangeably as products despite their absent price tag, move continuously through automated production and retail distribution, while services that require human effort are provided by people.

It is an industrial economy with real accounting, run without wages reaching workers or prices reaching consumers. The machinery that allows this is described below.

Industrial Production & Pricing #

The Commonwealth produces approximately ✦1 trillion in accounted value added each year across its bureau system, private corporations, municipal corporations and government, of which about ✦100 billion is public administration. These are real figures with a material basis, and are used for planning, trade and the allocation of capital. They rely on two values, known as the accounted cost of a product (what it consumes in the making) and its accounted value (what it is worth). Accounted Revenue is the value multiplied by output.

Accounted cost ($\text{A.C.}$) is the tangible cost of a unit of product, and is denominated in the crown (✦), which is the universal unit of account in the Commonwealth:

$$\text{A.C.} = w_0 L_h S_f + \sum_i q_i P_i r_i \lambda_i + \left(D + M_o\right)\alpha_e + E\,p_e$$

Where:

• $w_0 L_h S_f$ = the shadow wage, which is an inferred figure of labour hours $L_h$ multiplied by a skill factor $S_f$, and which is never paid. The base rate $w_0$ is ✦16 an hour.
• $S_f$ = skill factor, between 1.0 and 5.0, which is weighted based on training and scarcity: $$ S_f = 1 + 4\left(1 - e^{-\left(a\tau + b\sigma\right)}\right), \quad \tau = \frac{I_t}{I_{\text{base}}}, \quad \sigma = \frac{Q_t}{Q_{\text{ref}}} $$
  • $\tau$ = training, or what has been invested in a worker’s education, apprenticeship and certification $I_t$ against a baseline $I_{\text{base}}$ of ✦45,000
  • $\sigma$ = scarcity, or how long a skill is queued for $Q_t$ against a reference $Q_{\text{ref}}$ of 48 hours
  • $a, b$ = weights of 0.2 and 0.5, and so scarcity counts for more than training
• $q_i P_i r_i \lambda_i$ = materials, which are a combination of the quantity of each input $q_i$, its price in major international currencies $P_i$, the exchange rate $r_i$ and scarcity: $$ \lambda_i = \left(\frac{D_s}{S_a}\right)^{\eta} $$
  • $D_s$ = demand for the material
  • $S_a$ = supply
  • $\eta$ = elasticity. When demand outpaces supply $\lambda$ is greater than 1.0, and when there is a glut it is less.
• $\left(D + M_o\right)\alpha_e$ = capital consumption, or the depreciation $D$ and maintenance $M_o$ of equipment, multiplied by a waste factor: $$ \alpha_e = \tfrac{1}{2}\frac{M_h}{M_{\text{expected}}} + \tfrac{1}{2}\frac{F_r}{F_{\text{target}}} $$
  • $M_h$ = unplanned maintenance hours against expected hours
  • $F_r$ = defects per thousand units against estimate. When both are on target the factor is 1.0, and poorly maintained equipment raises the cost of the product, which compels firms to discipline their costs.
• $E,p_e$ = electricity and other energy at its accounted price. Electricity and land use are among the largest expenses of most Vekllei industries, and ground rent is included in the same way where it applies.

Accounted value ($\text{A.V.}$), as it is called, is the money-value of a good or service, and is mostly a matter of comparative pricing in major international currencies. For most goods this is simply the international (or “world”) price. Services are rarely traded, and so are valued against the average price in a fixed group of similar economies, known as the peer basket. Only goods with no foreign comparison at all are valued from their cost, using the NER’s reference prices:

$$ \text{A.V.} = \begin{cases} r_t\,P^{*}_{\text{world}}, & \text{traded good} \\ r_t\,\bar{P}_{\text{peer}}, & \text{service} \\ \text{A.C.}_{\text{ref}}\left(1 + \mu\right), & \text{no comparator } (\mu = \text{standard margin}) \end{cases} $$

Firms earn accounted revenue ($\text{A.V.} \times Q$) on what they contribute to the domestic economy and on what they sell abroad, and their accounted surplus is $\left(\text{A.V.} - \text{A.C.}\right) \times Q$. Because value is fixed abroad, a wasteful company only raises its own cost and thus reduces its own surplus.

This function is designed to resolve the information problem of central planning, since prices are not calculated at all, just observed. In this sense, the Commonwealth trades against the global market on its own account, effectively as one very large economic agent similar to the American or Japanese industrial titans.

Bureau Workshop Example

Item	Amount (✦)
Labour (200 hours)	7,680
Materials	22,500
Capital consumption (waste factor 1.10)	6,600
Energy	3,000
Accounted cost	39,780
Accounted value (1,000 at ✦45)	45,000
Accounted surplus	5,220

Regarding this table:

• The job requires baseline training ($\tau = 1$) and incurs a 22 hour queue ($\sigma \approx 0.46$), which establishes a skill factor of 2.4.
• Demand for the material is one and a half times its supply, and so at $\eta = 1$ it has a scarcity factor of 1.5.
• The value of each item (✦45) is based on the international price of an equivalent commodity.
• It is not heavily penalised by waste, which has lowered its costs and increased the accounted surplus.

The Commonwealth industrial crown (✦) is floated against the major foreign currencies at a price mostly anchored to the British pound and US dollar through the Commonwealth’s large foreign exchange reserves. This exchange rate serves as a basis for the value of imported materials and export revenues. For example, a tonne of copper bought for $4,500 in U.S. dollars is worth about ✦6,750 in crowns (at about ✦1.50 per USD), which trickles into downstream expenses and revenues. World prices are low in dollar terms, since the dollar buys about twice the goods it did at the turn of the century, and cheap nuclear power and advances in materials have lowered the cost of energy-intensive goods such as aluminium and fertiliser further still.

Some products are unique to the domestic market, and may not have an immediate equivalent overseas. In these cases, industry (through the NER) is able to construct reference prices based on rough comparisons and the materials and labour used. This is an artificial price and is certainly imperfect from a Hayekian perspective, but it hardly matters at such modest scales.

Because the skill factor ($S_f$) is established by the NER from inferred expenses, companies cannot inflate it independently. As such, the only real cost under company control is waste, and it becomes the primary metric for increasing profit. Indeed, a company that cannot control its waste faces ruin.¹

Textiles Example

Item	Amount (✦)
Labour (2,400 hours automatics supervision)	38,400
Labour (800 hours supervision)	34,400
Capital depreciation	1,400,000
Sea Island cotton (450 tonnes)	675,000
Dyes and finishing	250,000
Energy	480,000
Accounted cost	2,877,800
Accounted value (2 million at ✦2.00)	4,000,000
Accounted surplus	1,122,200

Most exports overseas are first subject to a federal levy of 10 per cent, and a 5 per cent export permit fee. There are exceptions for certain commodities like hydrocarbons, which incur a levy of 55 per cent and are effectively nationalised anyway (see Fiscal Architecture).

Surplus Distribution

Share	Amount	Use
Capital liquidity	40%	Spent on the company’s own use for equipment and expansion; its reinvestment
Municipal aggregate	20%	Spent on the workplace and its municipality; used for company-directed works
Sweep to the state	40%	Paid to the Treasury for federal redistribution (25%) and reserves accumulation (15%)

The sweep collects the remaining amount after reinvestment and municipal disbursement. Because it is collected last, the revenue to the state is reduced in a bad year, and the liquid capital of the firm is protected as long as it continues to make a surplus. Companies whose costs remain higher than the value of their output are typically allowed to fail (see Bankruptcy in Vekllei). A guaranteed enterprise, which protects a firm from failure, is a complex political and legal affair decided by the Mandatory Ecclesia, and is not arranged ahead of time. Commonwealth companies can also effectively be “phoenixed,” which means dissolved and refounded under the same name and brand after a total restructure, as happened to the Commonwealth Airways subsidiary Air Atlantic.

Most companies receive their municipal and workplace share in ✦ and spend it at home, on things like a renovation of a workshop or a new wing for the local school. Exporters instead receive their share in import credits, which can be used to buy goods from abroad. None of this surplus is distributed as wages or profit, and as a result no money ever reaches individuals.

Demand Signal Processing #

In the absence of prices, demand in the commons is measured through stock, which people count in days – six days of stock, or only a day of stock. A product with less than two days of stock is underproduced, and one with more than two weeks is overproduced. How closely stock is recorded depends on the shop and the visibility of the goods. High value items like watches have to be recorded, but consumables generally do not. Retail distribution centres in every one of the republics report their stock to regional accounting bureaus, which then submit these figures to the Register, and the consumption of individual people is not recorded.

Production targets are adjusted every quarter according to the following formula:

$$P_{t+1} = P_t \times \left(1 + \alpha \times \max\left(-1,\; \frac{C^{*} - C}{C^{*}}\right)\right)$$

Where:

• $P_{t+1}$ = Next quarter production target
• $P_t$ = Current quarter production
• $\alpha$ = Adjustment sensitivity (0.15 for staples, 0.30 for consumer goods)
• $C$ = Average days of stock on hand across retail centres
• $C^{*}$ = Target cover (seven days)

There is a limit to the adjustment, and production cannot be reduced by more than $\alpha$ in a single quarter.

If the textile company in the earlier example makes 500,000 shirts a quarter, and its shelves hold an average of 5.6 days of stock, its calculation would be:

$$P_{t+1} = 500{,}000 \times \left(1 + 0.30 \times \frac{7 - 5.6}{7}\right) = 530{,}000$$

This results in a 6 per cent increase in production the following quarter. Unmet demand cannot be counted, and so a product that has sold out is recorded as having zero days of stock, and production is increased by the full sensitivity. Each region is tracked separately, largely to prevent demand in the cities from leaving rural areas short of goods.

Because destroyed stock looks the same to the Register as stock that has been taken, the system is susceptible to fraud, which is invariably prosecuted as a federal crime. The best-known case was in Koja Municipality, Lucia, in 2022, where a councilman and his associates deliberately destroyed retail stock. They were arrested and charged by federal treasury police and were turned into an example, each punished with ten years prison.

Stock targets are also adjusted for other factors, like seasons and longer-term trends. The computerisation of stock tracking has allowed inventory systems to accumulate useful information over several years and anticipate demand. Bureaus receive these as quarterly reports for their areas of concern, since they consolidate specific industrial production.

Export Privileges #

Companies and municipal corporations may export their surplus for foreign currency once domestic demand is met, which requires an export permit.² As such, an efficient company earns export capacity, not profit. A firm may export whatever it produces once the domestic market is saturated:

$$ E = \max\left(0,\; P_t - D_d\right) $$

Where:

• $E$ = export number (units)
• $P_t$ = total production
• $D_d$ = domestic demand, which is derived from per-capita consumption information in the National Economic Register, and is met when stock cover reaches its target $C^{*}$

The permit is provided retrospectively, at the end of the quarter. It is not a certificate, since it is calculated in hindsight as a sort of tax (5 per cent of export revenue), and money is disbursed at the same time. Exported cargoes are still stamped and tracked.

Together with the federal contribution, this means that exports only earn 85 per cent of the world price. If a company’s accounted cost is higher than this, it loses surplus on every unit it exports. Once the textile company has saturated domestic demand with 2 million or so shirts, it might produce another 500,000 for export. Its export profit (perhaps ✦1,000,000) is added at international prices to its surplus in the same way as any other revenue.

For most firms, the primary attraction of the export market is the municipal and workplace disbursement, which is paid in import credits. The company and its municipality use these credits for novelties like imported food for the canteen, foreign equipment, or a new cinema in town. Consumable luxuries are very popular and are the sort of things Commonwealth people desire badly and cannot otherwise import (foreign cigars, chocolates, coffee, wine, perfume and clothing brands). Usually these are wanted not for any immediate use, but for their exclusivity and prestige, which in one way or another motivates much of Commonwealth life. As such, an export town often becomes known for its shops and attracts visitors from all over.

Imported appliances and electronics are generally kept in shared places like canteens, clubhouses and libraries. When a foreign design is popular at home, a Commonwealth manufacturer usually builds it under licence, and so a Japanese toaster might be found on shelves across the country. The imported originals are rare and are usually objects of barter or are collected.

This creates some level of competition between companies, since workers will be attracted to firms with better offices, workplaces and holidays, and firms chase export capacity to keep their best people, which is effectively a productivity incentive without wages or prices. Exporting towns are also popular with visitors for their shops. It is not a fundamental aspect of Commonwealth life, but it is a substantial incentive within the Commonwealth manufacturing economy.

Automatic Production #

Read more: Automatic Allocation

Automation in Vekllei runs on inverted logic. Because menial work has the same base shadow wage as any other kind of work, it is usually the first to be automated – meaning low value work is being replaced with machines that require high upfront capital expenditure.

$$A_v = L_f R_f - \left(\frac{C_c}{T} + M_c\right)$$

Where:

• $A_v$ = Automation value (a machine is installed when this value is positive)
• $L_f$ = Human labour hours made available each year
• $R_f$ = Redeployment value (the accounted value of an hour of work in its new role)
• $C_c$ = Capital cost
• $T$ = Service life in years
• $M_c$ = Annual maintenance cost

In this sense, the use of automatics is generally justified when it makes employees available for better work, and not when it is cheaper than their wages (although this varies between republics). For example, a street-sweeping robot (usually a National Machines General Use Machine) costs ✦90,000 and has a service life of ten years, with maintenance of ✦3,000 a year, which comes to about ✦12,000 a year in total. It saves 4,000 hours of human labour each year, and so it is economical as long as those hours are used for work worth more than ✦3 an hour.

In practice, as in many aspects of Commonwealth life, automation occurs erratically and at the local level, and so is generally conducted in response to local shortages and constituent interests.

Automation in 2063

Industry	Automation	Investment p.a. (✦ billions)
Basic manufacturing	94%	14
Food processing	89%	7
Logistics and distribution	78%	11
Agriculture	71%	6
Construction	45%	16
Healthcare	23%	7
Education	12%	2
Personal services	8%	1

Commonwealth enterprise has no access to cheap labour, and so it is under constant pressure to automate and to train its workers. Automation is the most technocratic aspect of Commonwealth economics and is pursued in every area of the economy.

Services #

Services account for about half of all employment and about a third of value added, mostly in health, education, hospitality and personal care. Much of this work is done by “portfolio employees,” or people who hold several jobs. They are calculated against a peer basket, which aggregates the value of labour in comparable economies. Service demand, like product demand, can be measured by its velocity, which in this context manifests as a queue. A long queue here increases the skill factor ($S_f$) of a role, pressuring firms to use scarce skills effectively and municipalities to invest in training new workers.

Bureau & Corporate Economics #

Read more: Economic Productivity in Vekllei

There are about 2,400 major organisations in the bureau system across Vekllei’s republics, alongside about 18,000 private companies and 3,400 municipal corporations. Most are worker cooperatives or private enterprises working within federal planning, but they differ considerably in character. The state is a substantial but minority participant in the market, and economic subsidiarity further complicates the foreigner’s understanding of the economy.

Government enterprises run infrastructure and essential services that need a unified command. The national railway, electrical generation, water systems and telecommunications are all direct government enterprises, and their staff are civil servants. These organisations prioritise reliability and universal service, but do not necessarily resemble state-owned enterprise overseas – CommRail, for example, is a federation of hundreds of local government railways under a common corporation.

Bureau corporations are industrial federations that control entire sectors. Caribbea Cane, for example, is made up of dozens of independent sugar cane farms and refineries, both private and public, under one plan. Most bureaus date from postwar reconstruction, when war-affected private firms needed to coordinate to access domestic investment and signal reliability to foreign investors. Constituent firms have access to federal capital, export licensing and shared technology, and each company keeps its own management. Most companies in the Commonwealth are democratic, and bureaus consolidate their company ballots into a sort of internal vote on production and technical development.

Municipal corporations are land-based industrial units where municipal borders become corporate borders, and total community productivity determines economic capacity. A municipality growing sugar cane or coffee can barter its output with the state for things like a hospital or a school, or trade it abroad through the Bureau of Trade, without needing to join a bureau.

Private companies are outside the bureaus, and are usually small firms in specialised production or local markets (though the country has several major private firms, like the Atlantic Department Company, Orleans Steelworks and Gina). A typical example is Adelectrics, a consumer electronics designer in Santes that employs just 16 people. They draw on commons labour and materials the same way as bureaus, but have no coordinated planning or federal capital. Many exporters eventually join a bureau for its capital and technology, while others stay independent for the flexibility. They may have municipalist or familial communal social structures, or operate like conventional private enterprise overseas.

Employment by employer (approximate)

Employer	Share	Notes
Federal and republic government	18%	Mostly the Commonwealth Post, the railways and the ministries
Bureau corporations	24%	Most heavy industry
Private companies	31%	Mostly small firms, and some large ones
Municipal corporations	12%	Mostly farming and fishing
Independent and self-employed	15%	Cafés, small shops and lots

Value added by sector, 2063 (✦ billion)

Sector	Accounted value added	Capital investment	Employment	Efficiency ratio
Food and agriculture	70	12	900,000	1.46
Textiles and clothing	30	6	300,000	1.50
Housing and construction	110	30	1,400,000	1.29
Transport and logistics	90	25	1,000,000	1.34
Manufacturing	170	40	1,300,000	1.55
Energy and utilities	60	34	300,000	1.25
Services	290	18	5,700,000	1.63
Technology	80	25	400,000	1.60

Services have the highest ratio of efficiency (value added against capital investment and imputed labour costs), but this is largely artificial since the peer basket values them at foreign wages, which are well above Commonwealth shadow wages. Manufacturing is in the middle and is productive mostly through automation. Energy is the least efficient, since its infrastructure takes an enormous amount of capital for fairly modest output, though it is invaluable to everything downstream.

Public Coordination & Development #

Read more: Public Industry in Vekllei

Public Participants in the Market

This is a list of the government offices involved in Vekllei’s national economy. You can read more about them by clicking on their parent organisation.

• Ministry of Accounts – National Economic Register, Bureau of Economic Weather, Bureau of Statistics
• Ministry of Commerce – Bureau of Securities, Bureau of Trade, Commonwealth Mint, Commonwealth Securities Exchange, Commonwealth Treasury
• Ministry of Industry – Bureau of Automatics, Bureau of Hydrocarbons, Bureau of Mines, Bureau of Works and Machinery
• Ministry of the Commons – Bureau of Housing, Bureau of Parks and Gardens, Bureau of Public Works
• Ministry of the Commonwealth – Bureau of Charters
• Ministry of the Interior – Bureau of Rail, Bureau of Roads and Paths, Bureau of the Merchant Marine, Bureau of Aerospace, Transport Commission
• Parliament of Milk and Honey – Bureau of Regular Service, Bureau of Labour, Bureau of Supply, Bureau of Production, Bureau of Distribution, Commonwealth Industrial Congress

Republics & Municipalities #

The Commonwealth’s eight regions use the industrial crown (✦) for inter-republic trade. Republics and municipal corporations maintain trade balances with each other, tracked through regional accounting bureaus.

There is no exchange rate between the republics. Every republic values its output through the same Register, and so a shirt made in Barbados is valued the same as one from Oslola, and no republic is able to devalue its accounting to undercut another.

Regular trade imbalances are dealt with by an redistributive mechanism instead, which is part of the federal redistribution share and is paid to poorer municipalities through the Treasury (see Fiscal Architecture). Oslola and Kairi effectively subsidise smaller republics through this mechanism in this arrangement, which is politically acceptable because the use of money is essentially stunted even at the industrial level.

Vekllei’s geography produces visible and relevant economic differences between the republics. This system accommodates those differences but keeps them from splitting the commons into rival economic zones.