CHAPTER SEVEN
ECONOMICS
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"I get so tired listening to one million dollars here,
one million dollars there; it's so petty."
Imelda Marcos |
Tropico offers a wealth of business opportunities to the ambitious leader, and we hope we can get you on your way to living in style quickly and efficiently! After all, you will need money in order to construct buildings and enforce policies that will keep our people happy!
Se±or, Tropico is a small island, and we must purchase most of what we need from the outside world, using hard currency. We have but a limited number of ways of raising the hard currency our economy needs:
- Exports (corn, bauxite, lumber, cigars, etc.)
- Tourism
- Foreign aid
- Rents and fees charged against your people.
Later in this chapter, I will provide a brief summary of the major expenses you'll face. Finally, the chapter will conclude with a brief note on Swiss Banking options, although I'm sure El PresidentΘ has far too much integrity to consider stashing Tropico's hard earned money in a bank account in Zurich.
EXPORTS
Initially, the bulk of our revenues will come from exporting the products of our island. We can start off with agricultural exports and soon add other base resource exports, such as meats, minerals and logs. Over time, we can develop some local industries, which will allow us to turn these basic resources into much more lucrative manufactured goods (such as making expensive cigars from our local tobacco).
Production
Early on, you will have to rely heavily on resource harvesting, including farming, mining, logging, ranching and fishing. Once you have built the basic structure (i.e. a farm, etc.), workers at that structure will work on their own, doing their best to maximize production. Farmers will select the best nearby land, and will clear trees as needed. Miners will work the richest deposits, Loggers will cut only full grown trees, starting with the closest. Fishermen will fish deep waters rich in fish.
Hauling
Over time, the gathered resources will pile up. If you have enough teamsters working, and the building isn't too distant from the teamster's office, a teamster will walk over, and carry a load of resources to the next destination. If teamsters are unavailable, eventually the farmers, miners, etc., will stop their work and haul the goods themselves, but they are much less efficient than teamsters.
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TITLE: Ruler of Portugal REIGN: 1929-1970 RISE to POWER: A military junta seized control of the government and installed Salazar in the position of Finance Minister, with extraordinary powers of control. FACTION SUPPORT: Military approval and a strong relationship with the church guaranteed Salazar one of the longest running personal dictatorships in the 20th Century. REPRESSIVE REGIME: Ruthlessly suppressed unions, maintained strict controls of the press and media, and constantly arrested his political opponents. ON a POSITIVE NOTE: Credited with developing the countries infrastructure, building schools, roads, bridges, and electric power plants, as well as expanding the previously limited telephone network. |
Hauling Destinations: For the most part, resources will be hauled to the nearest dock, where they will pile up in a queue. Eventually, a freighter will show up, and your dockworkers will haul the goods to the freighter. Then, and only then, will you be paid for the resources. My PresidentΘ, you don't get any money until the goods are loaded onto the freighter, so it can take a long time between when a crop is first planted and when the revenue shows up in your coffers - so be careful in your spending.
There are a few times when resources are not hauled to docks.
If you have a factory that uses the resource in question, the resources will typically be hauled to the factory (unless the factory has an excessively high input queue).
Food Hauling: Food also gets special handling. Most of the time, your people will pick up their necessary food supplies directly from the nearest farm, ranch, or fisherman's wharf. Often, a farm that sits especially close to your population center will see most of its food consumed by the populace, rather than hauled off and sold. Keep in mind that not everything grown at a farm can be used as a food source - tobacco, sugar, and coffee are cash crops only.
A special building, the marketplace, allows somewhat more controlled food supplies. A marketplace is not built to make a profit - it distributes food for free, just as farms and other buildings do. However, it can serve as a depot and distribution center for food. Build one in the center of town, and your people won't have to walk as far for food; if your infrastructure is running smoothly, there should always be a supply of food readily available there (as opposed to farms, which are seasonal, and often have nothing in their output queues.) If a marketplace exists (and has a worker), teamsters will always try to ensure that it has an adequate food supply.
Industry
The prices for manufactured goods are typically two to three times higher than the prices of the raw resources used to make them. At some point, it would be wise to build a factory or two to capture more hard currency for our products. Once you have built a factory, teamsters will haul goods there (assuming you are producing the necessary raw goods).
One unit of a raw resource is converted to one unit of finished manufactured goods. The more workers you have at the factory, and the more skilled your workers are, the faster the goods will be converted.
A word of caution, PresidentΘ- all factories employ factory workers, a position that demands a high school education. While it is possible to hire some high school educated workers from overseas, this quickly grows expensive. Consider building a high school before you build your first factory.
The available factories are:
- Cannery - Cans fish, pineapples, or coffee, for higher export prices.
- Lumber Mill - Converts raw logs into finished lumber.
- Jewelry Factory - Converts gold into jewelry.
- Rum Distillery - Converts sugar into rum.
- Cigar Factory - Converts tobacco into cigars.
TOURISM
PresidentΘ, some of our brother nations here in the Caribbean frown on tourism - viewing it as subservience to Yanqui fat cats. But however you label it, tourism can be the most lucrative industry on the island, and for the most part, you don't even need a particularly educated population. What you will need is a lot of capital and a lot of laborers to build the infrastructure, plus an attractive corner of your island, with a nice beach, and relatively unspoiled by pollution and crime.
As soon as you have some form of hotel for tourists to stay at, they will start finding ways to come to the shores of your island paradise to spend time (and money) having fun in the sun. Tourism is a very lucrative business, but not one without its problems.
Tourists
Tourists know what they like. They will rate your island and its attractions. Those ratings will determine how many and what kind of new tourists vacation in Tropico. For more information on this process, see Chapter 5: People. Tourists have varying levels of wealth, and the better you develop your tourist industry, the more likely it is that you will attract wealthier tourists. In general, better hotels attract wealthier tourists, but there are other factors that affect this as well.
Cheap tourists: The poor slobs who stay at the cheap hotels are much easier to please but don't have as much money to spend. Before you write them off, consider that the lower standards mean that you can attract large crowds of this class of tourist without nearly as much investment or maintenance costs.
Wealthy tourists: These tourists stay at luxury hotels and have gobs of Yanqui dollars to pour into your economy. They do, however, demand a much higher standard. The area immediately around the hotel will need to have very low crime, low pollution, an absence of any unattractive shacks and other detritus of daily Tropican life, and a wide variety of upscale tourist attractions to draw the cocktail crowd. If you don't meet that standard, they and their cash will go elsewhere. If you can afford to treat them to a little tropical heaven, it will be well worth it.
How tourists arrive: Tourists can arrive by yacht if your ports are set to allow them in. This allows entry that doesn't cost you any investment. The other option is to build an airport. The airport is a pretty big investment of both money and space, but has three advantages. First, it draws wealthier tourists (meaning you'll make more money off of your hotels and attractions. Second, you get to make money off the tickets. Finally, you can fly the tourists into the middle of the island, away from the hustle and bustle of a dirty city or industrial port, and have them walk immediately to a nearby hotel.
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TITLE: Commander in Chief of Panama REIGN: 1983-1992 RISE to POWER: Participated in military coup that brought down the government. CLAIM to FAME: Known for the tactics of intimidation and harassment he used against opposition groups and their leaders. CIA SUPPORT: Collaborated with the United States on covert actions against Nicaragua, training contras and providing a shipment point for CIA supported operations. ESPIONAGE: Worked as a double agent, collecting money from the U.S. while at the same time working for Communist governments, turning over highly classified U.S. intelligence materials to Cuba, facilitating the sale of restricted U.S. technology to Soviet bloc countries and selling arms to Cuban-backed guerrillas in Latin America. JUSTICE SERVED: Convicted in 1992 in a U.S. federal court of cocaine trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering. |
FOREIGN AID
My PresidentΘ, you may be amazed to know that wealthier nations are often inclined to simply give money to Tropico in the form of foreign aid. Sometimes, this is driven by their humanitarian natures. Most often, it is rather more coldly calculated - a major power will give money to us only if we maintain good relations with them. Often, it is worth your time and money to improve relations (though edicts, through the foreign ministry, or by making the capitalist or communist factions happy). A small investment in foreign relations will often yield a big payoff in foreign aid. Moreover, as Tropico's population grows, aid grants will tend to grow as well. If we should achieve a population of 500 or more, foreign aid can amount to vast sums of money. For more information, see Chapter 8: Politics.
RENTS AND FEES
All government-built residences and entertainment facilities have the ability to charge a fee. Whether you charge this fee, and how much, is completely up to you. Remember, though, that your populace can only pay for what they can afford. A family will spend no more than one-third of it's monthly income on rent, and an individual will spend no more than his or her monthly salary on entertainment (salaries are pooled for rent, but not for entertainment). If you don't pay your people well but demand high prices, you will alienate the very crowd you mean to make your money off of, and no one will use your facilities. When your economy is doing well, you may even feel so benevolent as to provide free housing and entertainment. Details on fee and rent setting can be found in Chapter 6: Buildings.
EXPENSES
In order to keep the clockwork of your island ticking, you will constantly have to spend a large amount of your government's treasury. A short list of expenses includes:
Employee wages
People don't work for free. The export of cigars, for example, is still dependant on the farmers who raise the tobacco, the factory workers who roll the cigars, the teamsters who move the cigars to the port and the dock workers who load the freighters. All of these workers demand a salary. The more educated a worker is, the higher the salary he or she will expect in return for services. If salaries are low all over your island, your people will grow unhappy, and many of your most skilled workers will emigrate away from Tropico.
Building Construction
All buildings cost money, and some of them are downright expensive. The same goes for the upgrades you can purchase for a few of the buildings. But without this initial investment, you can't make more money.
Building Maintenance
All buildings, even ones without a staff or income potential, cost a monthly fee to maintain. Some buildings have a set maintenance cost, while others give you some control through the different settings in the Building Options available when the building is selected. Edicts or the characteristics of your personal profile can also sometimes influence maintenance fees.
Edicts and special actions
Almost all edicts cost money to issue, and a few cost money to keep in place. Like buildings, if you pick your edicts wisely, the benefits will easily make the cost worthwhile. Likewise, some special actions such as attracting educated workers will cost money as well.
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TITLE: Ruler of Nicaragua REIGN: 1936-1956 RISE to POWER: Placed at the head of a newly formed National Guard, which was created by occupying US Marines. FINANCIAL GENIUS: Starting off with a salary of $700 a month as head of the National Guard, he managed to raise his personal fortune to $100 million in almost 20 years. UNUSUAL COMMERCE: Owned numerous blood banks that bought blood from the destitute lower-classes, only to sell it abroad at a huge mark-up. ASSASSINATION: Was shot four times while attending a party with friends. The U.S., not wanting to lose a good ally and vocal anti-Communist, helped his sons maintain the family's grasp on power. |
SWISS BANK ACCOUNTS
My PresidentΘ, some of your predecessors have made rather liberal usage of certain numbered accounts in Zurich. It seems to be a special form of pension for Presidents of Tropico.
There are two principal means of ensuring a fat Swiss bank account.
First, you may issue the edict 'El PresidentΘ's Special Building Permit' - which siphons off a portion of all construction costs to your numbered account. This can be done very early in your regime.
A more lucrative second option is the use of your own bank on Tropico to transfer money to Switzerland. You'll probably want to wait until your economy is in full swing, as you'll need college-educated bankers (expensive to train and employ), the bank itself (expensive to build), and free cash in your treasury to launder. Once you have got the money to develop this option, though, all you have to do is choose the 'Presidential Slush Fund' option at the bank, and soon you'll be watching you Swiss account grow nicely (to the detriment of Tropico's national treasury).