Lit From Endor to Exegol - The State of the Galaxy Discussion Thread (Tagged Victory's Price Spoilers)

Republic credits?

They're no good out here.

I feel like George Lucas could have written a less extreme reason why they can't afford a new hyperdrive.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Aurei

This is referencing them "with them having a universal value due to them being melted down"...so we can assume there are some if not many currencies that are actual commodity currencies...they are cast from precious metals and would therefore be accepted anywhere people value those metals.

As well there are several references in TLJ: VG that reference PM Coinage. Pg 59: Cantocoins, pg 65 inset: "coinage made from precious metals is the money of preference" and pg 67 the 'Blood Money' entry.

So I am wondering if the credit chips are the same...precious metal themselves...we do see when Yeager pays them that Tam and Neeku get more than Kaz. So I am assuming they are not just a debit card type thing.

I would also think the Corporate Sector does their own thing. Pay people with a currency only accepted in the CS so they can get whatever they can back from their employees.

 

Honestly you reminded me of something, are there any debit or credit cards in the GFFA? I mean there is online banking sure, but we don't seem to have people using it when at a location often

 

Why is that extreme? Is not that similar to saying "we don't take VISA"

 

Maybe Republic credits are fiat currency and not worth the paper they are printed on.

 

I know it's an idiom, but I don't think they're printed at all. The fact that they're called "dataries" always implied to me that we're dealing with a purely virtual currency.

 

I don't think so - we see people using the weird long credit card looking things a lot, and they're not returned, just collected by whoever's being paid.

@Charlemagne19 - I think they had to make it a question of currency because everyone who gets stranded there on Tatooine is either filthy rich or has unlimited funds at their disposal because they're on a diplomatic mission. Watto would likely be able to exchange, but. I dunno.

 

Is there a real world meaning of datary besides the old Roman Catholic church officials?

 

Not in The Phantom Menace. Once war breaks out and the Jedi are regularly traveling to independent systems, then sure, give them the credit chips that are made of metal, that have some intrinsic value on a variety of worlds. But in The Phantom Menace it always struck me as intentional, yet another sign that the Republic is out of touch with the needs of the galaxy.

No, but "data" being the root of it is where my assumption came from.

 

It feels more like, in-universe, "We don't accept US dollars."

Which is rare in the world given you're more inclined to have those accepted than some local currencies.

 

Maybe Republic credits can only be used if you have are part of the Republic's banking system and since Tatooine is not part of the Republic, it's not part of the Republic's banking system

But Qui-Gon is only offering him credits, not real money.

 

"Credits" is what money is called in Star Wars.

 

Not according to Watto.

 

A credit is a unit of currency, and a decicred is a tenth of one credit. Watto's quibble is about currency - the Republic credits (note the plural, not the singular "credit," as in a credit line) aren't worth anything to Watto on Tatooine. He wants to handle the transaction in local currency, for some reason. We frequently see characters making both digital transfers and using actual tender, which they refer to as credits.

It's unclear what a "datary" is, or their relationship to credits. To your point, maybe it refers to a particular type of tender/transaction?

 

"For some reason"? He tells us. He wants "something more real... Only money."

So sure, it's money in Republic space, cuz everybody there agrees it is. But "the Republic doesn't exist out here." Like Confederate money: it was never "real", even when the Confederacy existed, but rather an "IOU" for after the war, and which became even more worthless when they lost. The Republic can play all the economic games it wants with "dataries", it's all Monopoly money on Tatooine.

 

From the Wook.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Credit

"They were sometimes referred to as "Republic credits" or Republic dataries during the time of the Galactic Republic."

 

Yeah, I understand that the money is worthless on Tatooine, but it's clear from other sources that a "Republic credits" is a currency and a "credit" is the standard unit of that currency. The answer may lie in this idea of First Order money - Watto can't rely on Republic credits because, as a foreign fiat currency, its variable and difficult to deal with on the frontier, whereas barter or commodity currency is a more stable way to do business. Money works on Watto, where mind tricks don't, but the implication seems to be that Republic credits might as well not be money, not that they're literally not money.

 

In my RPG set during the Prequels I said, "There used to be a Republic credit exchange office on Tatooine but the man there counterfeited a few trillion credits and the Republic shut down the business pending further investigation....six years ago."

 

"The investigation would probably be finished by now if it was not for the tendency of the investigators to fall down stairs and break their necks. Well except those guys that suddenly quit after some before unknown relative died and gave them lots of money."

 

In a Galaxy with billions of planets...and each of those planets having billions to trillions of beings on them....the odds of a long lost rich great uncle become much more reasonable.

 

True. Currency is a odd thing in the Star Wars universe it seems. Then again, it also only had one bank (if CW gives us the idea that IBC was the only bank in the galaxy).

 

So I know this ain't canon but it was cool to see what happened to the freemakers after the Battle of Endor.

 

"Credit" may imply, particularly in a universe where commodity currency is common, that they are fiat currency.

 

I watched that wondering where Becky Smoochenbacher was...but since it appears that Moxie is Zander's kids I guess it worked out for him.

 

the one part that got me chills was that Kordi became a new republic senate and is stationed on hosnian prime and well we all know what happens to them. so she may be dead by the time of TFA. makes me wonder if Rowan became a jedi under luke's Jedi Order.