[Spaceships] Islamic Banking and Financing Spaceships Purchases

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Greetings, all!

For cultural (rather than religious) reasons, a setting includes two major approaches to banking. Let's call them, for a lack of a better word, 'Usury-OK' and 'Usury-NO', with the latter resembling the real-world Islamic Banking (but actually has nothing to do with Islam, since the setting has totally different cultures and religions). In some regions, people are heavily inclined towards one approach or the other, and in some there may even be legal reasons why one or the other maintains little or no presence; in others, they coexist to cater to people with different priorities, fears, concerns etc. (Also, a side note: IRL Islamic Banking seems to still be in its infancy, barely a few decades old, while the setting in question is TL9ish and had its usury-no equivalent for a handful of TLs, letting it become more developed / bugs removed / etc.)

Now, of course all financial matters are very complex in real life, and usually simplified in games. Me reading a bunch of articles and discussions (which I did) is not enough to understand the intricacies of Islamic Banking IRL, and real-world understanding is recommended when trying to produce a playable simplification of a real thing.

So my question is to those who are 'at home' with real-world intricacies of banking, economics, accounting, finance etc.: what should be the game effects of choosing the latter approach over the former? What should be the game-mechanical differences in terms of financing and payment as depicted on SS2:27?

Thanks in advance!

One quirk I invented which was that interest loans were legal in the normal economy(other means to pump capital were preferred but that was another story). But licensed gaming halls did not allow wagerers to wager borrowed money and indeed all chips must be bought in cash. The reason for that was to prevent harm coming to a relation whom it is presumed must in honor cover for them. The interesting thing was that gaming halls were allowed to permit customers to leave winnings in the bank and even to give usury-that was their affair. They just were not allowed to charge it. The effect was that gaming halls tended to become faux-banks existing beside normal banks.

This is not quite the same as what you are getting at, but it is interesting enough to notice.

For the financing of spaceships most clans organize their properties like Israeli Moshavrim. Personal properties are owned personally and starships are usually corporate, unless someone is a really humongous Taipan. Despite this banking is a normal part of life and clans that have amassed a given amount in shipping often switch to banking and charter off their tonnage. Clans in this stage often get involved in politics more as well.