Complex Economics

The MDF has a complex and hard to follow economic system. This makes direct comparisons with the economic measures of the rest of humanity hard to make - and therefore to some degree of little value. What is clear, however, is that their planetary economies are prosperous and well run - with the highest level of personal quality of life outside the Imperial Homeworlds.

The economic affairs of all the worlds of the MDF are managed on a highly decentralised basis, with little or no 'government' control, except where necessary for the welfare of the population or to manage the resource needs of its large Fleet. It is this decentralised nature that make it hard to produce accurate economic summaries for the outside Universe. There are critics who suggest this is deliberately over-complicated to confuse outsiders and to allow the MDF to retain an element of uncertainly as to it actual capabilities.

There are several economic focii in the Mald system - each of the four worlds provides resources for the fleet - but also the six main Academic Foundations are economic forces in themselves - with economic resources to match a major corporation or a colony world. Foremost among these is the original Mald Foundation, which also funds research and humanitarian activities across human space.

Trade

The MDF worlds and the academic foundations do not trade very much with the outside world - most trade is internal to the Mald polity. Trade and shipping in nortoriously effective - mainly due to the fact that all Mald trade is run by the Foundation Guild of Master Spacers (FGOMS).

FGOMS is a highly selective society to which all space crew operating on Mald Democratic Foundation internal merchant lines belong. Mald merchants are regarded as the most efficient, discrete and reliable in the Universe. They have a 100% record for safety and there are no recorded instances of a successful pirate attack on a Guild ship.