NationStates Jolt Archive

Aegean Sea Trading Alliance

The Aegean Sea Trading Alliance (ASTA) was created in an attempt to increase and organize trade, primarily in the Southern Aegean. The Initial proposals for it where largely concerned with establishing free trade and travel rights among members, but during the drafting of the charter policies of expansionism and group tactics in international affairs where introduced.

Members-
Ahura Mazdan
Mithinampoleis
Hellen
Cadmeia
Kallipolis

ASTA Exchange Rates (monetary and goods)-
1 g of Gold = 10 g of Silver = 100 g of Copper

The ASTA Charter

Article 1- Trade and Travel Rights

1.1- All members of ASTA are required to open any and all ports to other ASTA members trading fleets, and allow free passage of said ships through waters controlled by them.
1.2- All members of ASTA are required to allow free movement of ASTA members citizens in their territory, at least to the degree to which there’s are allowed.
1.3- ASTA members are required to share any details on trade and sea routes, as well with pirate activity, with other ASTA members.
1.4- If an ASTA member permits it a citizen from another ASTA member may settle within their territory.

Article 2 – Internal Alliance Affairs

2.1- All citizens of ASTA members in other ASTA members territories are required to abide by the laws of said nation.
2.2- If they are found to be in breach of these, then their parent nation can request they be punished under their law instead. The nation where the crime occurred has the right to decide whether to allow this.
2.3- If two ASTA members are in conflict over then ASTA will remain neutral in the conflict. Members are not required to close trade links with either nation, though if the desire too it is their choice.
2.4- In a non-military dispute between two ASTA members the alliance can be called in to mediate between the two sides.

Article 3 – External Alliance Affairs

3.1- ASTA members may propose sanctions on a non ASTA member city. If a majority of ASTA members vote to impose a trade embargo on a non ASTA member all members are expected to seize trading with them.
3.2- In the case of conflict between an ASTA member and a non ASTA member city, all ASTA members may be required to seize economic activities with them, in the aftermath of a vote. If the vote is passed ASTA will effect a trade and travel embargo. The vote will be held automaticly, unlike in 3.1 where it must first be called for.
3.3- ASTA members are never required to come to the military aid of another ASTA member, though they may do so on request

Signed-
Acorus of Ahura Mazdan, High Priest of Diodorus
Nikolaos Donus Hupeis, Petrarch of Mithinampoleis
Jason Petras Gusidios, Petrarch of Mithinampoleis
Alexandros Bagas Darid, Petrarch of Mithinampoleis
Zephyr Kabis Acondaos, Petrarch of Mithinampoleis
Phoibos Gezas Vitoris, Petrarch of Mithinampoleis
King Sirus of Hellen
King Alexandros of Cadmeia
Basileus Peteos XIII, Philosopher-King of Kallipolis

We, the five Petrarchs of Mithinampoleis, wish to join this noble alliance of noble city-states located on or with territory on the Aegean Sea devoted to furthering trade and travel within member city-states. We find that no states as of yet are in need of any sanctions however, we shall write to you when we do.

Signed,
Nikolaos Donus Hupeis
Jason Petras Gusidios
Alexandros Bagas Darid
Zephyr Kabis Acondaos
Phoibos Gezas Vitoris

We, the five Petrarchs of Mithinampoleis, wish to join this noble alliance of noble city-states located on or with territory on the Aegean Sea devoted to furthering trade and travel within member city-states. We find that no states as of yet are in need of any sanctions however, we shall write to you when we do.

Signed,
Nikolaos Donus Hupeis
Jason Petras Gusidios
Alexandros Bagas Darid
Zephyr Kabis Acondaos
Phoibos Gezas Vitoris

Ahura Mazdan wishes to welcome you to ASTA. May both our peoples profit from it.

We wish to join this great alliance of city-states. We hope both sides will benefit from the trade and travel that will come from it.

Signed,

King Sirus

A young man arrives and delivers a vellum note to an official of Ahura Mazda.

King Alexandros, on behalf of the city of Cadmeia, would like to join this league to provide his people, and yours, the luxuries that any true Greek deserves.

He waits patiently for a reply.

We wish to join this great alliance of city-states. We hope both sides will benefit from the trade and travel that will come from it.

Signed,

King Sirus

ASTA is honured to be able to welcome Helen too it's ranks.

A young man arrives and delivers a vellum note to an official of Ahura Mazda.

King Alexandros, on behalf of the city of Cadmeia, would like to join this league to provide his people, and yours, the luxuries that any true Greek deserves.

He waits patiently for a reply.

ASTA is delighted to be able to welcome Cadmeia into our numbers, and hope that this will help bring new luxuries to us all.

After much debate,we, the five Petrarchs of Mithinampoleis, believe that it would be in the best interest of all ASTA members to establish a common system of weights and therefore currency in order to standardize trade between us. Right now, Mithinmapoleis uses a Drakma, subdivided into 5 Obol, which are intern subdivided into 10 Chalko. We also use the term Mina for quantities of 100 Drakma and the term Talent for quantities of 5,000 Drakma. What do you say?

Signed,
Nikolaos Donus Hupeis
Jason Petras Gusidios
Alexandros Bagas Darid
Zephyr Kabis Acondaos
Phoibos Gezas Vitoris

Ahura Mazdan currently uses a curreny system based on the amount of various metals in the coins, and their varying values. Are system runs like this-

1 Gold Shekel = 7 Silver Dhaka = 23 Bronze Herat

There is therefore the silver in seven Dhaka is is worth the Gold in one Shekel, and the Bronze of 23 Hearts. The remaining metal is largely copper, and is not o****ed in the value.

We recomend we work out a currency exchange for our various coinage, for example X Shekels equals Y Drakma and so forth.

OOC: 1 Drakma is about 5 g of silver.

IC:

We, the five Petrarchs of Mithinampoleis, wish to work out a rate by comparing the wieght of the coins. 1 Obol is about a gram, a unit we have heard being used in far away lands.

Signed,
Nikolaos Donus Hupeis
Jason Petras Gusidios
Alexandros Bagas Darid
Zephyr Kabis Acondaos
Phoibos Gezas Vitoris

We have calculated the weight of the Dhaka, our silver coin, and we bellieve it contains roughly 4.3 grams of silver. By that maths 10 Shekels is worth roughly 9 Drakma.

Would 10 Shekels not be 301 obols which is 1 obol more than 60 Drachma? Would the ratio not be 50 Dhaka to 43 of our Drakmas? Or one of your Dhakas is 0.86 Drakma, or 8 Obols, 6 Chalko? How did you get 10 Shekels to 9 Drakma?

Really? I'm too tired to do math. I probalby got it mixed up somehere, and multiplied or went up a unit not down or somethign. I'll have another look tomorow, I'm going to bed.

kk I think I got it right though. Because a Drakma is 5 g and your Dhaka is 4.3 g. 4.3 divided by 5 is 0.86.

Ok. So one Dhaka equals 0.86 Drakma?

Yeah, or 6 Drakma equals one Shekel. Drakma is the unit my people commonly use and I assume Shekel would be yours? Also, gold to silver to copper exchange rates. I was thinking 1 g of gold = 5 g of silver = 25 g of copper.

Thats fine by me. Do yuo want me too put the exchange rate up?

A sealed note is delivered by a trading ship bound for Ahura Mazdan.

The Kingdom of Korotos requires a clarification of the ASTA charter before we can consider membership. 'Free trade' is mentioned several times within the charter, we wish to know with what intent that phrase is used. Whether it prevents any taxation or hindrance of merchants in ASTA ports, for example, or just prevents member nations from putting trade embargoes on one another.

Signed,
Prince Stefanous Korotos.

A sealed note is delivered by a trading ship bound for Ahura Mazdan.

The Kingdom of Korotos requires a clarification of the ASTA charter before we can consider membership. 'Free trade' is mentioned several times within the charter, we wish to know with what intent that phrase is used. Whether it prevents any taxation or hindrance of merchants in ASTA ports, for example, or just prevents member nations from putting trade embargoes on one another.

Signed,
Prince Stefanous Korotos.

OOC-
I used it to mean open ended trading rights between members, so no banning access to ports or particular members. I assumed Import and Export duties would be applied to trade by everyone, as they usually are.

OOC: I never noticed how 3.2 performs the embargo without a vote. Could we perhaps edit it to put it to a vote which nation in the conflict to embargo?

Yes I will. Is a simple majority enough, or do you think I should go for 60%/40%?

I think a 75% majourity. If we don't get the required majourity, should we embargo both or neither?

I don't know. 75% means one objecting member right now could stop an embargo. I'll just leave the wording as a majority, so if 2 vote yes and 2 no then no embargo, but 1 no, 2 yeas and 1 abstains we get an embargo. That ok with you?

Yeah. Both or neither if we don't get a majourity?

I figure no majority no change in policy. Same would go for removing an embargo as well.

What about a majourity against?

Then no embargo. If the side supporting the proposistion (whatever it may be) gets a majority then the proposition - be to start an embargo, end one or whatever - is passed and becomes ASTA policy.

(I'll probably write this up as ASTA voting policy tomorow)

I realize I've been absent. I must change that.

Has the exchange rate by weight of metal been actually decided? I need some clarification on what was decided, or may be soon, and would like to suggest the talent (33kg gold) as the unit for large transactions.

I realize I've been absent. I must change that.

Has the exchange rate by weight of metal been actually decided? I need some clarification on what was decided, or may be soon, and would like to suggest the talent (33kg gold) as the unit for large transactions.

????? I think you meant grams. 33kg of gold is way OTT. I'm putting the metal exchange rate up now, and if we can get all the currecnys worked out I'll put that up as well.

No, I mean kilograms. That's why it was used for mass transactions, like, for example, to pay for those couple of ships you hired to transport your goods. I mean, it may seem like it's over the top (thank you Google! I suck with acronyms) but, well, it existed and was used on the state-wide scale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talent_(measurement)

Edit: And, really, when you think about it, you're not going to buy just a few drachma worth of marble, slaves, etc., if you're a state trying to become an empire. You're going to buy in bulk to maintain surplus in case you need to ride out some rough months, and to fulfill the needs of everyone who relies on you.

Wow. The Greeks went way OTT. By the looks of it it might be easier to establish a common currency that come up with exchange rates.

I would do both, actually. Establish a common currency, and then have each individual city calculate their exchange rates against that, unless they actually choose to change their coin entirely, which would be the practical thing to do, but traditionally speaking, I doubt many would -- Cadmeia certainly wouldn't.

Yeah. Lets do exchange rates, realistically. I'll be back with gold:silver and silver:copper and silver:bronze prices by weight in USD and we can compare our currencies with that and establish exchange rates. I'm not changing my currency.

Fortunately, since we're using actual coinage, the currency can be cut to the appropriate (near) weight on the fly. It requires merchants and states to be a little lenient in order to be practical, but that wasn't a problem in reality, so it really shouldn't be a problem with our merchants and states.

Yeah.

After doing some digging on wikipedia I found that the greeks valued gold to be worth 10 times as much as silver so we could assume that the same ratio goes for silver to copper and get 1:10:100 conversion rates (gold:silver:copper)

Kay I'll change the gold/silver/copper values then and work out the currencys. Santheres have you posted your coin weights?

To the Trading Alliance of the Aegean, Greetings!

The People of the City-State of Kallipolis wish to broaden our trade relations by entering this alliance. We are prepared to abide by its charter and to contribute what we can for the glory of the Alliance.

Signed,

Basileus Peteos XIII
By the Will of Zeus, Philosopher-King of Kallipolis

Accepted