Esthar's Economy

[Baroco]

How is it possible that a totally isolated country like Esthar was able to keep up a functioning economy for 17 years without ANY international trade? Usually in the real world the countries without trade like South America were unable to keep growing since technology got cut off....I guess Esthar was intended to be a socialist success story?

[Rostum]

ummm... it's just a game?

[Spatvark]

The way I figure is that Esthar is totally self-dependant. They grow their own food, have a vast water supply, have access to all the materials they need and don't even have to worry about being invaded since they can't be seen. So, in other words, Esthar didn't need any other stinking country =P

[Erdrick Holmes]

Actually if you payattention to the help menu under info you'll see that Dollet is the town that was first made by the people who now live in the town of Esthar, the radio tower is run by Esthar, so I gess that the people of Dollet pay Esthar for using it.

[Dazlar Bynon]

They DON'T use it, because of the world-wide signal interferance! Sorry Akumaou812, why would they pay for something they don't use?

[Besimudo]

This issue is so deep that entire text books have been written on it.

Look at Scandinavia or Japan both these economies were isolated and managed to modernise.

In fact Japan was so envied by the west they attack Japan in 1853. Esthar (east far) is analogous to Japan. If Potential GDP remains higher than Real GDP and the internal velocity of money is high an economy can experience growth without trade. Technology is a function reliant on education and not trade. Both Sweden and Japan have excellent education programs and the investment pays off.

Japan was called the land of gold by the west, and it seems that Esthar is an attack on Globalisation. Obviously Globalisation kills domestic growth by subsidising products and government expenditure.

We think that globalisation is good, because we are indoctrinated to think this by our governments. It is the governments who benefit from globalisation via tariffs and subsidised goods, the public merely loose their jobs.

Esthar is secure, they have fully exploited their natural resources (the continent is an ecological disaster) yet they have a wonderful export market (like Sweden and Japan) note that "Odine brand" is very well known outside Esthar.

In summary Esthar is a success story, strong domestic control (i.e. no imports)....With excellent surplus (i.e. export goods) I doubt that this is purely achievable in today’s world as Japan imports food stuffs from Korea and Australia, and Sweden imports materials from Germany and Russia.

In short I believe that Esthar is the extrmophile of the Japanese economy. Its quite ammusing that Esthar is also in the east!!!!

[Big D]

Exactly. Another thing to consider... it's entirely plausible for nations in a fantasy world to differ from the patterns found in our world. The culture, history, social structures, and scientific and technological advancements can be - and are - completely different, even at odds, with what we have in our world. Large-scale self-sufficiency, as Besimudo described, is by no means an impossibility. Our entire world survived for millennia with no trade between many nations, after all.

[Baroco]

I didn't expect this much conversation on this topic...

Personally I think Esthar's economy has a lot of central planning and management, even if that planning is "to make the market work better." Keep in mind that not all socialist-leaning economies are inundated with working-class and anti-business rhetoric

[Big D]

What's strange is that Esthar's basically in the middle of a desert. No farms, the nearest plant life is over the mountains, in the forest to the north. They either:
a) Get their food entirely from the sea
b) Have big greenhouses and zoos within the city
c) Artificially produce foodstuffs
Given their level of technology, it's plausible that they could do a combination of these.

...Strange, though... Esthar's such an advanced nation, yet they don't have the technology to (SPOILER)repair Ward's damaged larynx? This always struck me as a little odd.

[Mo-Nercy]

it was like that before i got here!

Maybe the estharians found it like that. :rolleyes2

[Blackmage]

Originally posted by Mojo Pin
ummm... it's just a game?

Eeeeeeexactly!

[Flying Mullet]

Originally posted by Big D
What's strange is that Esthar's basically in the middle of a desert. No farms, the nearest plant life is over the mountains, in the forest to the north. They either:
a) Get their food entirely from the sea
b) Have big greenhouses and zoos within the city
c) Artificially produce foodstuffs
Given their level of technology, it's plausible that they could do a combination of these.

...Strange, though... Esthar's such an advanced nation, yet they don't have the technology to (SPOILER)repair Ward's damaged larynx? This always struck me as a little odd.

Beware, the answer is c. Don't eat the Soyent Green(foodstuffs)!! It's made of people!!!

[Christmas]

They eat little girls as food. They were kidnapping girl as Adel's successor. Those not chosen are obviously food!