On 07Jan2022 1744, Alex Goodwin - alex.goodwin at multitel.com.au (via
tml list) wrote:
> Question for the Learned Members:
>
> Does this apply to non-sovereign interstellar governments?  In the
> 3I's case, sector, subsector and/or cluster?
>
> Where do vice-regencies (such as domains) fit in?
Aside from possibly being allowed to take out war loans, I think sector
and subsector governments would be at least as constrained as the
central government. /However/, the ruling noble could take out personal
loans, backed by their personal or family fortunes and pay for things as
a private project, which while unlikely to be very significant compared
to an entire sector's budget, might be enough to cover at sudden urgent
need on a system or sub-sector level. How they get compensated by the
Imperium (if at all) is another matter. Maybe the Imperium buys whatever
it was off them slowly, or maybe they find a way to make money off it as
a private investment (and thus end up owning even more of the subsector...).

A great deal is going to depend on how interventionist your Imperium is,
and how much money it has for anything past paying its tax collectors,
spies, and enforcement/security forces. The OTU seems to have very
little (until MegaTraveller, where it suddenly turns out to have these
massive fleets lying around), not being able to stop piracy, and
reacting slowly and often initially quite weakly to systems breaking
rules about inter-system warfare. Also, barely winning the Rim War
(technically a stalemate and cease-fire, of course) despite being much
larger, and forgoing a complete victory because of the excessive cost.

--

Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>