The ministry of Trade thread

[Spiffor]

The foundation speech
by Spiffor, newly elected Trade minister

Dear citizens of Apolyton,

First, I would like to thank all of you who voted in the Trade advisor election. You have spoken, and put me in charge over my worthy opponent, the Banana. However, as a sign of comprehension towards the other voters, I will consult the Banana everyday, at breakfast time.

As the first minister of trade, I promise you to care for the greatest interests of our nation before my own. The ministry shall work on the deals our empire will eventually have, so that they are the best for our interests.

I will also care that our trade network is efficient, and the ministry will petition the adequate ministers to connect cities, luxuries and resources as soon as needed.

My last promise to you people is : I will listen to your concerns whenever you feel fit to tell them. My services are completely available for all of your questions. As a democratically elected minister, I shall remain near to the citizens ! To this, I will inform you by giving all the internal notes my services should write.

The internal organization of the ministry is as follow :
- the department for domestic trade, whose concern will be to care of our trade network
- the department for foreign trade, whose purpose will be to work out the best manageable deals with the foreigners.
Both these departments will adress you their notes, without keeping them for myself or for the government.

Dear citizens, I am looking forward to work my best for the greatness of our Civilization.
(Apolyton's anthem)

[civman2000]

i think trades not involving resources should be the foreign advisor's job...after all they're more of negotiations than trading, and they're done though the foreign advosor screen!

[Spiffor]

A trade not involving resources comes mostly from the minister of foreign affairs : the minister of foreign affairs decide. But the haggling job comes to the minister of trade, who has to get the most money/advantages (terrioty map etc.) from the widely decided trade by the foreign minister.
The ministry of trade is secondary, but it is a job which has to be done, as making the best deal is much micromanagement.

[Nubclear]

Re: The ministry of Trade thread

Originally posted by Spiffor
The foundation speech
by Spiffor, newly elected Trade minister

Dear citizens of Apolyton,

First, I would like to thank all of you who voted in the Trade advisor election. You have spoken, and put me in charge over my worthy opponent, the Banana. However, as a sign of comprehension towards the other voters, I will consult the Banana everyday, at breakfast time.

As the first minister of trade, I promise you to care for the greatest interests of our nation before my own. The ministry shall work on the deals our empire will eventually have, so that they are the best for our interests.

I will also care that our trade network is efficient, and the ministry will petition the adequate ministers to connect cities, luxuries and resources as soon as needed.

My last promise to you people is : I will listen to your concerns whenever you feel fit to tell them. My services are completely available for all of your questions. As a democratically elected minister, I shall remain near to the citizens ! To this, I will inform you by giving all the internal notes my services should write.

The internal organization of the ministry is as follow :
- the department for domestic trade, whose concern will be to care of our trade network
- the department for foreign trade, whose purpose will be to work out the best manageable deals with the foreigners.
Both these departments will adress you their notes, without keeping them for myself or for the government.

Dear citizens, I am looking forward to work my best for the greatness of our Civilization.

What will your first action as Trade Advisor be? Do you even know?

Also....Does anyone know if we even have an athem?

[Timeline]

Actually Spiffor, the way the Code of Laws is at now, you only have direct control when gold, luxury, or strategic resources are involved. It stinks I know, but it's the way people had wanted it when they were writting the constitution. Maybe you outta get over there and try to make some suggestions before the thing gets voted on .

I didn't even want to have a Trade minister as I thought it should all just be the foreign affairs minister, but, eh well. Congrats on your victory and enjoy your bananas, just be careful, the medicine men now have a theory that you may become what you eat.

[Spiffor]

Tassadar :
As my minister is centred around situation-dictated micromanagement, I won't have any decisions to take before we find foreigners, or before we find resources / luxuries.
But, I will do one thing in preparation : an excel file to keep track of all active trades. In SP games, when you don't feel like micromanaging your trade, you often lose track of your trades, and let deals last 40 or more turns before remembering to renegociate them (of course, the AI won't renegociate them if they match its interests).
Now, as a specialist in matters of foreign trade, I will carefully keep track.

Timeline :
Thanks for the info, but I don't remember the competences of the trade ministry were even discussed. The onl thing I know about my functions come from Gramphos' thread about ministries and their functions (the multiple choice poll where it was decided a ministry of environment was useless).
Could you give me a link where the competences of the ministry of trade were discussed please ? It would be warmly welcome.

[Timeline]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=52689

See Gramphos and my post for details. Gramphos laid the foundation in his first post and I attempted to clearify it in the Code of Laws. I clearly define the differences between the foreign advisor and trade minister. If you dont like what we have now, we can always change it, just start a poll for amendment and if it's popular it can easily be adjusted.

[Spiffor]

Timeline :
Indeed, some precise point of our glorious constitution leave some roomfor improvement.
One of the works of the current ministry of trade will be to work on a viable porject for a merger between the ministry of finance and the ministry of trade, for the sake of efficiency and coherence in monetary politics.
Currently, our newly created institutional bureau hasn't a complete project ready, but a major overhaul of the government organization in matters of economy are in the works. Of course, such a project will have to be decided with the agreement of the finance minister, and above all, the agreement of the people.

[Timeline]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Timeline :
Indeed, some precise point of our glorious constitution leave some roomfor improvement.
One of the works of the current ministry of trade will be to work on a viable porject for a merger between the ministry of finance and the ministry of trade, for the sake of efficiency and coherence in monetary politics.
Currently, our newly created institutional bureau hasn't a complete project ready, but a major overhaul of the government organization in matters of economy are in the works. Of course, such a project will have to be decided with the agreement of the finance minister, and above all, the agreement of the people.

Actually it would probably be far more effecient to merge the minister of trade with the foreign affairs minister, but that would leave you out of job .

[Spiffor]

I don't think so, as I imagine the minister of trade as a haggling minister, where money is the concern, or following the wishes of other ministers.
That's why I imagine the trade ministry merged with the other "money ministry", rather than the Foreign advisor, whose diplomatic logic is completely different.

As for my job : I accepted to do this because no one else wanted to do the job. Now that I have taken engagements in front of Apolyton citizens, I won't turn back until the end of my term. But losing my job afterwards really doesn't bother me.

[Spiffor]

Official communication. 3950 BC.
- The minitry of trade is officially opened, and will seat in the palace of our glorious capital, Apolyton. From there, our services should work for the interests of our nation.

- The discovery of the Notylopa Jungle up north might be good news for the ministry of trade. Our experts expect the jungle to be rich in tradable goods. The ministry strongly pushes for exploration of the area.


Official communication. 3750 BC. Department of domestic trade
- The workers, placed under Eli's leadership, completed the first road connected to Apolyton. This road, located NW of the Capital, is proper for the transportation of goods, compatible with the norms of the ministry. This first road should be the first step for an integrated trade network.

[Spiffor]

Department of Foreign Trade, 2900 BC
- Dyes have been spotted in the newly discovered American territory. The Americans do not use this luxury, and this has a negative impact on the population's mood.

- French are alledged to bring Wines to Paris, but their source has not been discovered yet. Our department estimates the wineyards to be North from Paris. It is currently impossible to tell if the French have several wineyards in their territory or only one.

- An attempt to trade pottery for gold has been made. Our chief negociator lowered American demands to 2 gold per turn + 6 gold lump (contrary to the 2gpt + 13 gold lump initially demanded). However, the cabinet refused this trade unanimously.

- All attempts to trade for Alphabet and Mystcism have been failures because of our partners' refusals.

Edit : minor changes for clarity

[Ninot]

just a querry.. aren't I supposed to be reporting all and any tech trading? (unless it has resources involved)?

that IS the way the constitution is written

EDIT: oops.. ok.. just read the constitution, you are involved as long as gold/luxury/resource is involved. But still, tech trading IS my field.

but yeah.. i wanna merge next term.. its crazy how much consulting im supposed to do to get some deals done.

[Spiffor]

Sorry, I thought the haggling job involving money was mine (ie, lowering 13lump to 6 lump), but decision making was your call with Tass.

[Ninot]

Tass advises on tech trade, but trading the tech isnt his complete field, its my decision in the end.

I can't argue that you are doing your job wherever gold/luxury/resource is concerned. You are completely right there.

But its strange, that a single transaction can be reported from two to three reports.