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Originally Posted by Astromancer
Jason Taylor brings up something truly interesting. Changes in Banking Culture.
Different worlds will deal with money and interest by different rules. Example: Islam forbids charging interest, Christianity used to do so. Religious rules on interest and other aspects of finance could be a interesting problem to work around.
Related but different, not all legal systems have similar values. In Monaco the legal system follows an Inquisitorial System and follows, or until recently followed, standards of justice that openly weren't interested in standards of truth, but instead sought social harmony. "Social Harmony" was generally, but not always, defined as pleasing powerful and socially prominent families. Whether any of this was fair or just to outsiders was not a consideration.
Cultural variations in banking law, business law, and criminal law, is part of why most spacers stay in the star port. |
One of the main problems will be banking without real time communication.
The last Blood and Treasure talked of "Hawala" which is a system of private banking and moneychanging. Someone makes a deposit with one moneychanger. He in turn will send what is effectively a letter of credit to a given city to be opened on a passport. Hawaladars maintain books with each other from distances away and balance by paying debts with other debts so that all the customer sees is the cash but the hawaladar sees the account book.
I wonder if some colorful thing like that could be arranged.