"Peter F. Hamilton - A Night's Dawn Companion - The Confederation Handbook" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Peter F)

The Edenist unit of currency is officially the dollar, though it is now referred to
entirely as the fuseodollar. It is the strongest, most prevalent currency in the
Confederation, remaining stable since 2135, and as such has become the standard
against which every other currency is measured. With one or more habitats in most of
the ConfederationтАЩs 862 inhabited systems (the principal exception being the Kulu
Kingdom), and the infallibility and incorruptibility of the habitat consciousness which
handles all fuseodollar transactions, Edenism has become through the Jovian Bank the
premier interstellar banking institution.

The Jovian Bank has branches on a large proportion of planets and asteroid
settlements throughout the Confederation (including the Kulu Kingdom), and all
major multi-stellar organizations (such as the Confederation civil service) use the
Edenist dollar as their currency.


Economy
The foundation of Edenist wealth comes from mining He3, the fuel used in fusion
reactors throughout the Confederation primarily because of its clean burning qualities
(low neutron emission) when combined with deuterium. Not only is it used for
commercial power generation on- and off-planet, it is the principal drive system of all
Adamist starships, both interstellar and interplanetary. The cloudscoop mining
operation of gas giants, around which the habitats orbit, is considered to be owned by
all Edenists equally, and its finance is administered by the habitat personality (see
Finance, below).

The price of He3remains the same throughout the Confederation, even in systems
where there is no cloudscoop operation, and that price has remained stable for 500
years. Although not a pure monopoly, the Edenist operation is so large that anyone
else running a cloudscoop operation is forced to supply He3at the same rate.

When Eden and Pallas declared independence from the UN in 2090, they also
initiated a (hostile) buy-out of the JSKP multinational consortium which had
originally funded JupiterтАЩs atmospheric mining. Because of the enormous cost
involved in starting up the operation, the debt was not paid off until 2135. After this
the Edenists were truly independent. Fusion remains the major power source
throughout the Confederation and, given the gas giant reserves of He3, is likely to
remain so. Research continues into direct mass-to-energy conversion and other
systems, but as yet none has demonstrated any practical application. Following the
one serious attempt to break the Edenist energy monopoly, when Earth built
antimatter stations, Confederation politicians have retained a policy of quiet
moderation in this field.

The continuing demand for He3, and their use of self-sufficient bitek habitats, means
that as a group Edenists have the highest socioeconomic index in the Confederation.
It is worth noting that even if He3fusion were completely abandoned by the
Confederation, their bitek habitats, financial services, and industrial strength would
mean that Edenists could retain their standard of living with little disturbance.
Although Adamists complain bitterly among themselves about the He3monopoly
(excepting the Kulu Kingdom and Tranquillity) they also acknowledge that the
Edenists, with their high ethical standards, are an ideal group to supply the