The Honorable Bradley Marcuse, Her Imperial Majesty's Finance Minister, Empire of Ananto and KalistanHearing no further discussion on the preliminaries, I shall continue:
I propose the creation of the Terran Monetary Unit (TMU) as the single universal convertible currency.
Definition: When I refer to the "Cambio", I am referring to the International Cambio Currency Calculator. If I can find a way to make an online version of the calculator I will, but for now, I will always keep the most recent valuation of the Cambio pinned in the Official Particracy Discord available for DL from Google Docs.
The TMU will have the following features:
1. It will be pegged to the IRL USD. For all practical RP purpose, the value of 1 TMU will be equal to 1 USD.
1a. The actual TMU will be calculated in the Cambio tool. Whatever the USD is in a day, the TMU will also be that +/- .01%. This means it will float within a range of $0.9999 and $1.0001. The reason for this float is to jitter the data to reflect the simulated nature of the TMU. (The jitter is generated at the time of any recalculation. This model is currently in the Cambio to represent the simulated nature of the TMU, and doesn't noticeably affect any direct valuation at more than at most 1 dollar per 1000 dollars. It is determined mechanically, by RNG, generated 10,000 times within the range of .9999USD and 1.0001USD, and then the mathematical average of those simulations represents the calculated value of the TMU, which is then used for comparison.)
2. It will exist as a concept rather than an actual IG currency. Nobody can stock TMUs. Buying and selling of TMUs on the international market will be expressly IG forbidden. It is merely the measuring stick against which all other currencies are measures, permitting their comparison with one another.
3. As such, the TMU cannot be issued by any government, nor will the policies of any IG nation affect the value of the TMU in anyway. Its value is set external to the game. In this way, no country can lay claim to the TMU. Players may however IG express their prices for items in either local currency, for RP flavor, or in TMUs for ease of understanding, and assume that a transaction cost is built into the expression one way or another.
With the establishment of the TMU as the Single Universal Convertible Currency, all local currencies will need a value set against that TMU. Once this is completed, the calculator can accurate calculate relative values of the local currency. The value of the local currencies in the calculator is always expressed as "1 TMU will buy X (local currency). So, for example, if the Kalistani Ruble is set at .45, then the expression is "1 TMU will purchase .45 KRB." (this comes out to, "1 KRB will purchase 2.22 TMU." signifying that the KRB is much stronger than the TMU) When you are setting the value of your currencies, you are saying how many of your currency units 1TMU will purchase.
I propose three different player options for setting the value of local currencies:
1. All non-player nations' currencies will be set to float within a specific range against the TMU. This number will be between .5 and 500. This means that the value of any local currency will be worth between about 2 TMU (simulating the strongest currencies) or as little as as little as .002 TMU (simulating the weakest currencies). I think this is an adequate range to reflect the range of the largest part of the IRL world's currencies. This number will be randomly generated with each revaluation of the TMU, and will simulate ebbs and flows of currency values going on in non-player nations. Since valuation will happen rarely, this will gloss over a lot of ups and downs that happen in currency markets, but it will create a spot value for each nation which is not actively participating in currency markets.
2. All player nations can let their currency float. They can either float within the range described above, or they can choose their own range.
2a. If they choose their own range, here is how they do it: They will need to 1st pass the National Law titled "Exchange rate regime" to allow their currency to float. Then they will need to set the range. 1 TMU being the standard, the range has to be any positive number, including a decimal. If they want a currency stronger than the TMU, they should pick a number between 0.0001 and .9999, and a weaker currency will be >1.0000. There will need to be BOTH a lower limit and an upper limit for the request. Generally most countries shouldn't set a lower limit at less than .5 or an upper limit at more than 6 to reflect a realistic range of currency value. But they can set the limits at anything really.
2b. If they just choose the standard "market" range, the lower limit will be set at .5 and the upper limit will be set at 500, as if it was a non-player country.
3. A player can choose to peg their currency to some value of the TMU.
3a. If they wish to peg their currency, they should pass the law "Exchange rate regime" to signify that they are pegging their currency.
3b. The player needs to supply a value. This is expressed as 1TMU will purchase x (local currency). So, a lower value <1 is stronger against the TMU, while a higher >1 is weaker against the TMU. As most RL countries' local currencies are weaker than the USD, a realistic option would be to select a number >1, with a value of 100 equaling roughly 1 US Cent.
3c. "Pegging a currency to the TMU" means setting the value at 1.00. This means 1 TMU will buy 1 (local currency). This is a player option.
3d. There doesn't need to be a RPed reason for the valuation. Currencies get hard pegged to a specific value all the time for any or no reasons (usually no reasons- it is whatever the speculators in the market agree it is at any specific time for a myriad of reasons, or just panic...) RPing a reason will add flavor, but is not necessary.
I will open a TMU forum, where players can add their currency ranges to the Cambio. They can either add them IC or OOC as a request. I will then update the Cambio and will attempt to keep a new version uploaded regularly. If a Player wants to RP a currency crisis, I could make special updates to the Cambio upon request. It only takes me a few minutes to update it, and just a minute to update any particular value, so Special requests can be fairly easily managed.
I open this up for discussion. Thank you for your attention.