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On Tue, 8/26/14, Tim <xxxxxx@little-possums.net> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] expected ship traffic
 To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
 Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2014, 9:25 PM

[Much good stuff deleted]

  The
 trade for the world is
 likely aggregated into one or more highports,
 with an orbital and on-world distribution
 network of some sort.  When
 you add up all
 the backwaters over the whole planet, you get a traffic
 of about 50,000 dtons per week despite this
 planet (and all the others
 nearby) meeting
 96-98% of their own demand.

 So although this insular
 planet consists mostly of a few moderate
 cities and a great many backwater towns that
 never see a starship, the
 planet as a whole
 still does enormously more trade than a few tramps
 can supply.

 That's because planets are really big.

 - Tim
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It's obviously actually a question of 'a few tramps'.

In this case it could be about 100 CT Book3 merchantmen, none larger than 1000dtons, averaging 500dtons of cargo arriving & leaving per week. More if the cargo avg was lower, esp if the system is NOT situated on a J1 'Main'.

So, 200 arrivals/departures per week.

Let's say 30 per day.

Less than two per hour.

Some would be tramps, most would be operated by corporations of varying sizes.
(After all what was the retired Merchant Captain doing all those years represented by his chargen? Operating a tramp freighter? I think not!)

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