Economic Consequences of the Rift War of 1919...

[The Rock Doctor]

Notice to all players:

For every 2,000 GRT (or portion thereof) of merchant shipping lost by your nation in the Second Rift War or related incidents, subtract $0.5 from your national income in 1/20, and $0.25 in 2/20.  This reflects lost products and commodities aboard those ships, and higher shipping costs in a tighter market.  These costs will only apply to 1920.

Italian, DKB, French, and Colombian colonies with only Rift Sea marine access should subtract a further 10% of their income in 1/20 to reflect disruption and re-routing of shipping carriyng imports and exports. 

Orange, Ottomans, and Egypt will take a flat 1% hit to their income in 1/20 to reflect the same disruption of Rift and Red Sea shipping.

Other than New Zion, there was no significant impact on civilian populations due to the wars.

Expect information on Chinese Civil War economic disruptions later...

[Nobody]

I don't know how much shipping was lost in the war, but a 1 % drop seems like a lot in comparison. Not that it's going to kill me (erm Orange), and I don't think it's too much either, but well just my two cents.

[The Rock Doctor]

That's not a shipping loss for Orange (or Egypt and Ottomans either), but rather additional shipping costs for Orange exports (minerals) and imports (food?) as your shipping has to re-route around western Africa or east of "Ophir", rather than steaming straight up the Rift Sea to Suez.

[Darman]

Makes sense, there are a lot of increased shipping costs during a war.  Loss of merchantmen means the remaining merchantmen can afford to charge more for their services.  It also means that insurance rates will increase dramatically.  Any decent insurance provider will jack up their rate for merchant vessels all over the world as soon as a war is declared.  And when vessels start being sunk they will increase rates yet again, and more so for those oceanic regions where ships have been sunk. 

I do have a question though:  does having a significant merchant marine help one's economy in any way?  Or does it just hurt them?  (It actually doesn't really hurt them... Egypt has no merchant marine at all but still relies on foreign shipping). 

[The Rock Doctor]

We've had discussions on this point but never pinned down precisely how important it is to each economy.  Adding to one's merchant marine should lead to increased income, while losing shipping should cost money (as seen here).

The other advantage of a merchant marine is that one can nationalize one's own shipping and use it for military purposes during war:  troop transports, fleet supply, etc.

[Darman]

I ask only because I had been thinking about it.  I wondered if perhaps an equation could be worked out where "world trade" was worth X amount (perhaps 5% of world revenues? or some other random number) and then each nation got Y% of X, with Y equaling the percentage of world merchant tonnage they have in their fleet.  Just a thought. 

Nationalizing merchant marine vessels would be vital for Egypt... which is why Egypt needs to start building its merchant fleet up. 

[The Rock Doctor]

Hunt through the Geography/Economy/Infrastructure forum (or whatever it's called) and you can probably find some discussion and unofficial ideas on that.

[ctwaterman]

In addition the I expect it will take about 2 Years to clear all the mines out of the Rift Sea,  This will take pretty much the 20 or So Mine Sweepers Italy has deployed to the Job 2 years to clear all the mines with a high degree of success.

I honestly think the economic impact could have lasted longer but someone is being nice to us.

The Quote was it take 4x to 5x as much time effort and money to sweep a mine field as it take to lay it.  So New Zion was laying mines for what 4 month and we only started sweeping them 2 months ago....   I intend some stories concerning the loss of several mine sweepers over the next several years.

[Nobody]

How do I get a merchant marine anyway? Isn't that like the railroads - not included in the rules anymore and considered to be part of the infrastructure?

[maddox]

Nobody If you specify that certain investments for  IC increase are specific to support/build a merchant marine, there are possibilities, and of course, advantages with disadvantages.

In this case, we see the disadvantage in modern warfare that targets merchant marine. Ships sunk. Ships diverted to military purposes. Ships following longer routs, burning more fuel, taking more time and so on.

[TexanCowboy]

How much would it cost to buy tonnage from the New Zionite merchant marine, who would probebly be looking to switch from the nation that can't defend it really, anymore, into another, safer nation?

[Darman]

That's a good question... Egyptian merchants are starting to look into owning the hulls that carry their goods.  They are blaming the increased costs of shipping during the last war to foreign shipowners. 

[ctwaterman]

Some Notes I have been compiling.

Merchant Ship Losses by Countrey
France: 22,000 GRT [14 ships]
Italy: 29,700 GRT [17 Ships] + 2 Ships Early report no GRT Listed
DKB: 13,900 GRT [7 Ships] + 3 Ships Early Report no GRT Listed
Habsburg: 1,600 GRT [1 ship]

New Switzerland: 19,800 GRT [12 Ships]
Plus numerous ships and linners lost moving troops to Eilat ?

So this has been an expensive little war !  :-[

Edited:  Found some more ships all belonged to me.... :'(

[Carthaginian]

Damn... rough time for the merchies!

Maybe we should adopt a variant of the Ares Conventions here in N-verse?
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Ares_Conventions

NOTE: though the Ares conventions would seem to make war an impossible feat, they actually made war commonplace. Suddenly, the most horrible deterrents to war- the loss of civilian life and destruction of private property- were virtually eliminated, and virtually overnight war became the most popular sport in the galaxy. ;)

[Sachmle]

The really scary thing that should come from the merchant loses is that ALL the Swiss shipping was lost to MY SUBS