Economy of Urcea

The economy of Urcea is a highly developed. As part of the Occident, Urcea has an industrialized, advanced economy. It has the world's largest GDP. The Taler, currency of Urcea and the Levantine Union, is one of the world's currencies of record, and its strength is partly attributable to its basis in the Urcean economy. The Urcean economy is fueled by high worker productivity, a well developed transportation infrastructure system, a large labor force, and considerable natural resources. Urceans enjoy one of the highest average incomes in the world, and Urcean society is characterized by relatively small income inequality. The impact of is significant on the economy, both in its institutions and outlook. The collaborative Urcean guild system is designed along Catholic principles to avoid labor conflict, and the Urcean finance system is based on the principles of Levantine finance.

The Urcean economy has always been among the world's largest due to its large population size and extensive commercial history. It became the world's largest without rival during the, which completely altered life in the country and led to extensive urbanization. The Urcean economy experienced rapid growth in the late 20th century due to increasing economic modernization and technological innovations, allowing an average 3.1% growth rate between 1972 and 1999, after which point the economy began to slow down and "normalize" relative to potential growth in productivity. The economy has additionally seen a major growth period since the end of the War of the Northern Confederation, as the "nuclear revolution" in energy has fueled a major boom due to plentiful and cheap energy.

Urcea's economy is divided into forty statutory industries; within these industries, every firm and their workers are federated together into guilds. Unlike many other industrialized countries, much of Urcea's economic regulation takes the form of self-regulation within the guilds. The guilds, which feature equal representation between employers and labor, are responsible for setting labor conditions, minimum wage, and other related policy areas. Most guilds also pool resources in order to provide benefits of some form, reducing the burden of businesses within the guild while simultaneously providing sound retirements and, in some cases, health insurance, for its members. Urcea's guilds exercise wide authority over the economy, as they not only self-regulate but also are responsible for approving any proposed trade deals with foreign nations through the Gildertach.

The Urcean economy is highly integrated with that of its Levantine Union neighbors. It is among the world's largest exporters and importers.

Employment
The Urcean economy is characterized by a large number of professional employment opportunities. The majority of Urceans work under a four day, 32-hour work week.

Guilds and labor
All employers and businesses in Urcea, including the Government of Urcea itself, are arranged in a system of guilds. Guilds, sorted by industry, are the self-governing bodies of the economy which internally regulate most labor laws and workplace conditions as well as having the authority to set the minimum wage within the guild. Guilds are comprised of representatives of both business owners and labor unions, and each guild has local branches at the provincial and municipal levels which are partly responsible for appointed "vested" members who hold special decision-making authority within the guild structure. Guilds are represented in the Gildertach, which is the sole body which can determine and approve laws relating to guilds and also holds power to approve certain trade deals. Guilds are prohibited by strict laws from imposing barriers to entry within their industry, ensuring that new firms are not colluded against by existing members of the industry; the labor unions traditionally have been a "check" against collusion, as historically union leaders believe new businesses within a guild will enhance the negotiating power of workers. Adherence to the guild system is enforced by the Office for Guild and Workforce Affairs. The guild system has been cited by several studies as being a primary reason for low reported levels of class antipathy in Urcea, and several economists have suggested that the system has greatly reduced class inequality.

Debt
The Government of Urcea run a budget deficit every year betweem 1967 and 2026. Traditionally, relatively low nation-wide taxation and a complicated tax code were combined with generous social safety net programs and a large military to create large budget shortfalls every year, beginning in the Occidental Cold War. However, the passage of the Royal and Provincial Tax Act of 2020 dramatically increased government revenues beginning in FY2021-22, though deficits persisted due to costs associated with the large-scale rearmament necessary to fight the Final War of the Deluge. In FY2026-27, Urcea ran its first budget surplus in sixty years as the military returned to peacetime footing but the increased tax revenues remained from the 2020 reform.

Urcea's subdivisions and municipalities are generally prohibited by law from passing unbalanced budgets, meaning that most provincial and local governments run small incidental deficits. The majority of provincial and local government debt occurs through publicly approved bonds.

Regulation
As a, the Urcean economy is subject to significant regulations. The primary regulator is the Ministry of Commerce on most issues, especially trade and finance. The guilds themselves, in tandem with the Ministry of Commerce, oversee labor conditions within the country.

Public regulation
"Public regulation" refers to mandates and regulations imposed by the Urcean government or the provinces, crownlands, and states within Urcea. This is the least common form of regulation due to the role of guilds in the economy. Although the government in many cases does not directly impose regulations, it has an important role to play with regard to negotiating with the guilds for the imposition of certain regulations. The government does have some role in imposing certain regulations in the form of, as consumers are the one part of the economy not represented within the guild apparatus. The Ministry of Commerce's Office for Equitable Economic Activity is generally responsible for negotiating consumer protections with the guilds, but does have authority to impose regulations on its own fiat. The Office is also responsible for enforcing various regulations on the financial sector, especially with regard to ensuring that banking and finance complies with Catholic ethics.

Private regulation
"Private regulation" - those regulations self-imposed by guilds - are the most common form of regulations within the Urcean economy. Guilds have a relatively wide berth of authority over their associated industry, ranging from minimum wage and workplace conditions to industry standards for manufacturing and generally-enforced best practices. The guilds - which collectively represent both labor and capital within them - typically negotiate most points of regulation, ensuring that the enacted regulatory scheme benefits both the workers as well as business proprietors.

Union regulation
Urcea's membership within the common market of the Levantine Union means several Union-originated regulations also exist within the economy. These are primarily related to product standardization.

Regulations imposed by the Levantine Union originate from the Levantine Union Diet and the organs of the Union. Within Urcea, they are legally permissible because the Gildertach voted to approve the institution of the common market and delegated certain regulatory authority to the Union at that time.

Agriculture
Agriculture is a major industry in Urcea. Urcea's fair climate and sweeping plains, particularly within the Valley are perfect for growing both wheat and maize, and the country exports both of these in large numbers, particularly to countries circling the Odoneru Ocean. As a consequence of the wheat surplus, the dairy industry became large in the 19th century and is another important sector in the economy today, with milk being another major export besides being consumed in most homes across the country. Another sector that benefits from the nation's agricultural strength is beer production, and in the province of Goldvale hops and wheat for brewing purposes are grown in large quantities. Goldvale's Upriver Brewing Company produces Royal Billion, which is Urcea's best selling beer. In the south of Urcea, and especially in Canaery, wine production is a major industry. Urcea is home to the world's largest honeybee population due in part to the country's abundant agricultural lands, which provide ample food sources for the bees, as well as the government's efforts to protect and conserve honeybee populations. As a result, Urcea is one of the world's leading producers of honey and other bee-related products, and its honey is known for its high quality and distinctive flavor.

Arms manufacturing
Arms manufacturing is the largest part of Urcea's manufacturing sector. It encompasses a wide variety of activities, ranging from the production of small arms to large ships for the Royal Navy as well as various aircraft. This sector also produces significant goods for the civilian economy in the form of surplus, not only small arms but shipping, vehicles, and other logistical equipment.

Tourism
Tourism is a major industry in Urcea, providing about 14% of all economic activity when including revenue from hotel, airfare, activity at restaurants, shops, and other ancillary tourist activities. Urceopolis has been the top tourist destination in Urcea since the advent of global travel, with the Papal State and Christian holy sites serving as the top draws followed by Great Levantine ruins and historic sites.

Real estate
Due to Urcea's very large population, housing is always a highly sought-after commodity. This, combined with Urcean social preferences for and beliefs about the benefit of relatively lower-density and single-family housing, has created a massive real estate industry.

Construction
Urcea's lower-density housing and large housing need created a massive construction boom in the mid-20th century, as the advent of the car provided for the construction of sweeping suburbs throughout the Valley and other parts of the country. Between 1950 and 1990, construction was one of the country's largest industries. By 1995, however, suburban homes and apartments had been built in such a way that far outstripped need at the time, leading to a major construction bubble collapse in the late 1990s. After the 2002 Family Living Act, the construction of new major-scale suburbs in the Valley essentially became illegal, and the construction industry was forced to downsize and coalesce as a new focus emerged on smaller exurban developments and the urban town and country design. Construction remains a major Urcean industry in the 21st century, but is significantly smaller than its late-20th century peak.

Finance
The finance sector in Urcea is large and plays a major role in most economic activity. Its revenue figures and traditional growth metrics are smaller (in relative terms) than most other major non-Levantine industrialized nations due to the confines placed on the finance system by the principles of Levantine banking and finance, which typically prohibits traditional interest payments.

Service sector
The general service sector makes up the majority of Urcean economic activity. As an urbanized nation, Urceans rely on the retail sector for nearly all basic necessities, requiring a large workforce to fulfill them and creating large revenues.

Shipping and cargo transportation
The movement of goods and services with Urcea and abroad is becoming an increasingly large part of the economy. While rail transportation has been a major economic sector since the 19th century, the Urcean commercial shipping industry has doubled in size since the beginning of the Deluge and increased economic activity in Crona. The shipping sector in Urcea is subject to significant Burgoignesc investment, as many of the major firms established during the late 20th and early 21st century were founded by Burgoignesc capital or as offshoots of established Burgoignesc companies.

Public sector
The public sector is an important part of Urcean economic life, but its impact is spread disproportionately. It is one of the largest economic sectors of the Archduchy of Urceopolis, where the Urcean government and bureaucracy are based, but has a smaller impact by contrast in many provinces and crownlands. Government employment remains an important part of the economy of many of the nation's smaller provinces, where the provincial government represents an outsized part of the economy; this especially presents itself in provinces in Transionia and the Urcean frontier, with Ardricampus serving as a prime example.

Energy
The energy sector in Urcea has been one of the fastest growing and most robust sectors of the economy since the beginning of the Deluge.

Railways
In Urcea, all rails, switches, and any other infrastructure necessary for the provision of rail travel is publicly owned, but all cars and services are privately owned. Accordingly, railway companies play a major role in the economy. The vast majority of internal freight within Urcea is shipped by rail, making these companies significant contributors of economic activity with a large labor force.

Currency
The Levantine Union Taler is the unit of currency of Urcea. It is the official currency of the Levantine Union, and is one of the most widely used currencies in transactions worldwide. As a member of the Union, Urcea has relatively limited control over and the value of the Taler; regardless, the strength of the Urcean economy is widely considered to be one of the sources of the Taler's strength. Urcea is viewed by many nations as the de facto guarantor of the worth of the Taler.

Health care
Urcea employs a universal system wherein private insurers exist alongside a government health insurance system known as the King's Health Aid.

Regional differences
The economy of Urcea is varied and cannot be understood without taking the regional differences into account.

The Valley and Ionia
The Valley represents the heart of the Urcean economy and its major demographic center. The Ionian Plateau region, though not considered part of the Valley as a cultural region, exists as an important peripheral part of the Valley as an integrated infrastructure and economic unit. This region is extensively urbanized, hosting some of the world's largest cities. At the center of the Valley, both figuratively and geographically, sits Urceopolis, the seat of power and culture for the country as well as the nation's main economic driver. Although the Urceopolis metropolitan area economically dominates the Valley, the western coastline of the Valley has traditionally been an economic center of gravity as well, with the major maritime cities there playing an important part in international trade.

The Valley had Ionia have an extremely diverse economic portfolio, ranging from massive real estate and service sectors near the major cities to agriculture in the outlying sections. The Urceopolis metropolitan area alone hosts many different global industries, with the finance, government, and ecclesiastical sectors employing several hundred thousand people combined in the metropolitan area. Education and tourism are also massive economic drivers in that metropolitan area and throughout the Valley.

Ionia, to some extent, lacks the economic dynamism of many parts of the Valley, but still retains significant agricultural and tourism sectors. In the last century, infrastucture innovations have also made it an important transportation corridor where it was previously isolated by the Ionian Mountains.

Eastern Corridor
Gassavelia and Transionia are the parts of Urcea that encompass most of its eastern border, and accordingly they comprise the second-most heavily integrated part of the economy with Urcea's Levantine Union neighbors. Although national infrastructure projects link these regions to the Valley, many of their transportation connections link eastward into Burgundie, Rhotia, and Lapody. Together, these regions also comprise a single economic corridor between the Ionian Mountains and eastern border, and accordingly much of the economy of Transionia and the entire corridor is dependent on Harzenon, the cathedral city and economic hub of Gassavelia. Suburbs of Harzenon and the service sector economic activity related to them stretch throughout Transionia's southern province of Burgundiemarch, which also has limited agricultural activity and some exurban communities tied to Burgoignesc economic centers. Northern Transionia's province of Eastvale, though rural and more agricultural, is very much Harzenon oriented, and much of the produce consumed in Gassavelia originates there. The northernmost part of Eastvale serves as a crossover region between the Corridor and Northern Urcea.

The Eastern Corridor is one of the poorer parts of Urcea due to the geographical remoteness of many settlements, harsh climate of Gassavelia, historic resettlements, and generally small population of the Transionia region.

Southern Urcea
Southern Urcea is an economic region beyond the Valley which consists of the country's southwestern shore and "middle provinces" which largely sit within the frontier region. These regions share sigificant similarities, including a traditionally thriving commercial port coastal area and relatively unproductive hinterlands. On the frontier, agriculture and exurban development (including both construction and real estate) dominate the economy of the interior, whereas the Caenish hinterland is mostly highlands not suitable for significant economic activity. Cana is the economic heart of this region.

Northern Urcea
Northern Urcea consists of the area beyond the Pralia Mountains from the Valley, Carolina and Ænglasmarch. These regions are the most heavily integrated with Anglei and Yonderre, with some economists describing the collective area as the "Durham-Gabion Transnational Economic Area" (DTEA).

Canete Region
The Canete Region, referred to some economists as Urcea's "Economic Periphery", is an economic area which encompasses Urcea's territory in and around the Sea of Canete; namely, the Islands and Nova Istroya, encompassing the provinces on Crotona, Tromarine, Halfway, and the mainland southeastern shore provinces of Urcea. While distinct culturally, these regions generally share an orientation towards trade with Sarpedon, and in this respect they are also both tied to the coastal cities of the Archduchy of Urceopolis which conduct Urcea's primary maritime shipping. Of the entire Canete region, only the two provinces of Crotona could be considered an "independent" economic driver in the sense that its economic activity is not largely dependent on other locations.

Trade
Urcea's trade relations are significantly focused on countries in Levantia owing to the lack of tariffs within the Levantine Union, though trade agreements between Urcea and other countries, such as Kiravia, have been growing more prevalent in the 21st century.

Although Urcea's major trade partners are within the Levantine Union, it conducts a large amount of overseas trade. Urcea's shipping industry is one of the largest in the world, and foreign trade with Crona, Sarpedon, and other partners have greatly enhanced the shipping and air freight industries. Urcean economic interests in Crona have lead to greater trade across the Levantine Ocean, with a particular emphasis on new markets in New Harren, which serves as a hub for trade goods in the eastern hemisphere and a gateway for goods to flood back to Levantia. Urcea traditionally suffered a fairly large trade deficit mostly reliant on exporting food and other goods to Sarpedon, but with the rise of the Nysdra Sea Treaty Association and development of markets in Crona - in addition to increased trade with Caphiria - the nation has enjoyed a trade surplus fairly regularly since 2014.

Business culture
Urcean society exhibits a unique business culture due to a number of different social traditions and institutions, including and especially the Catholic Church and guild system. Many cultural observers have noted a high level of "democratization" of the Urcean economy based on both regulatory climate and social expectations. Industry-spanning megacorporations are generally considered to be difficult to form in Urcea for these reasons. Instead, scholars note that corporate leaders tend to focus on very long-term planning and possible innovation rather than competitive domination and cornering markets. The regulatory and social systems that dominate Urcean economic life are viewed, outside of Urcea, as being cumbersome and daunting, and accordingly most foreign capital prefer to operate entirely within the context of Urcean-operated companies due to familiarity with the various institutions governing commerce.

Regulatory impacts
The extensive system of regulation imposed on businesses in Urcea through the guild system generally discourages the practice of monopoly forming or market cornering.

Trust culture
The Urcean business world is characterized by a high degree of trust exhibited between business owners as well as between businesses and customers. Observers have suggested that both the guilds and share Catholic ethics have a role to play in the development of this degree of trust. Within the guild system, most local businesses are bound together, ensuring that long-term relationships between them are not only possible, but in many cases required. This is due to the common voting interests within the guild as well as the basic physical proximity that proprietors are required to take part in as part of guild meetings and membership. Additionally, the high degree to which Urcean society adheres to Catholics ethics means that a relatively high bar for proper behavior between individuals exists, so significant social pressures exist for individuals to keep their agreements.

Surveys of foreign business leaders note that many Urceans conduct business based on and verbal agreements; consequently, Urcea has among the lowest levels of corporate litigiousness in the Occident.

Role of the guilds
The guild system is one of the most important economic systems in the Urcean economy, with the self-regulatory system it creates touching nearly every element of Urcean economic life. Accordingly, whether or not this degree of oversight is appropriate has been a political issue in Urcea dating back to at least the mid-19th century. The traditionally portion of the political spectrum, especially those Crown Liberals like the National Pact, argue that the system impedes innovation and has stifled Urcea's economic growth relative to nations like Caphiria and Cartadania. Proponents argue the system has allowed innovation by preventing the formation of and that removing the system would necessitate a new government-run regulatory system that would damage the economy; supporters also argue that the system is fundamentally just and in line with Catholic teaching on the dignity of human persons and labor. Within the current Urcean political spectrum, the Pact is generally opposed to the guilds and the Solidarity Party is a strong defender of the system, with the remaining minor parties holding views in between. Within Urcean socialist philosophy, many socialists are deeply divided on the issue, with most Particular Marxists generally holding favorable views with some reservations.