Autokings operate in internal unit called Energy Credits (EC). EC is a representation of physical fusion fuel autokings control that can be readily used to power fusion reactors or traded with other entities. 1 EC is how much fuel a million of average humans with basic tools can produce in a week on an earth-like planet. In practice, various blockchain and banking systems are used to transact in tokens that can be usually redeemed for actual fuel, which is compact and widely useful.
Population of regimes usually pays taxes based on registered income, and might also pay extra duties on activites like trading with foreigners. It is possible to gather fusion fuel in basically any environment, but it is most profitable to do it in low-gravity environment with access to rare earth minerals.
The Void Church, which is the sole entity initially providing FTL travel, is facilitating trading between star systems. They charge payments for the goods to be moved, which is based on goods' size, safety of the route, available bandwidth and other characteristics. If something happens to the goods, VC obtains replacements, so it can be assumed that goods will get delivered. Price, however, especially for smuggling or unstable routes, might be very high.
Sellers come to the market with a minimum price in mind, and negotiate with potential buyers, considering their maximum price and transport costs. Using VC transport network, any point of the galaxy can be reached in a week. Trading is done in limited batches, and after every deal is finalized, prices get reconsidered to ensure available transport bandwidth and stock is used to satisfy the richest buyer. Parties might have personal preferences in goods' sources, such as culture they like.
Once citizens obtain enough EC to purchase materials and provide power for construction, they can build industries to produce goods other than EC. In choice of these, government subsidies and profitability will be considered. Private industries have rather small planning horizon. With time, industries produce [[hr]] points and that results in improved quality of goods, which means the goods will take up the same space for transport, but will provide more satisfaction to the customer.
Government can also create public industries and employ workers to satisfy own needs in goods or pursue other long-term interests.
Galaxy is a dangerous place, and generally everybody's life, health and property is insured. This helps stability by sharing the individual problems. Insurance price is determined by local conditions such as climate, goods' availability and stability of the region. Insurance versus workplace payment is the main factor that determines if a citizen wants to live somewhere.
People who do not have insurance because they can't obtain a job that pays enough are called NILs (non-insured labor), work ineffectively and poorly reproduce. NILs also are culturally diverse and while they yield good societal research, their values might get divergent. However, in absense of well-paying workplaces NILs can produce cheap goods and eventually jumpstart the economy by building an industry and becoming insured citizens.