Worth of credits

I am having trouble figuring out how much a credit is worth. What is it in earthen currencies.

 

It's so ridiculously inconsistent it's not really worth paying attention to. Sometimes "one credit" seems to be the equivalent of one US dollar, sometimes it seems like the equivalent of a thousand dollars or a million dollars.

 

Yeah. A million-credit bounty is unheard of, but when Boba is talking to his granddaughter in Bloodlines he mentions that a couple thousand credits (I forget the exact amount) is the cost of a repeating blaster.

 

Credits *usually* seem to be the equivalent of $1 US dollar, but as has been said, this varies. What's often interesting to note is how they're used for small, everyday items. For instance, there was a scene in one of the later Evasive Action webcomics where the characters ran through a store with prices in the background. In that case, IIRC, they were about equivalent to US dollars (unless grocery items are ridiculously expensive in the SW galaxy).

Although it should be noted that (Clone Wars Episode 11 commercial spoiler): Count Dooku is held for ransom by some Weequay thugs for 1 million credits. Which just seems like a *cough*rip-off!*cough*

 

Like I keep saying, the Galactic Basic word "million" clearly has the same meaning as the American English word "trillion".

 

I don't see the problem with a million credit bounty being unheard of.

Bounty Hunters are not well paid.

Though that's a lie in the EU. Adar Talon's Bounty was 50 million credits.

Edit:

If they're 1977 credits, then the value of credits is 1 Credit= 4.77 Modern Day US Dollars with inflation.

 

Honestly, I've always thought credits were worth significantly more than dollars. Could you nearly buy a spaceship for anywhere in the vicinity of $20,000, after all?

 

Assuming Spaceship=Car.

In 1977, yes.

 

Star Wars economics is bizarre to say the least.

And those 100,000-credit-or-less prices for freaking starfighters are still in the guide books, so what it was in 1977 isn't really accurate.

 

That makes sense, until you consider that Boba Fett, constantly referred to as the best bounty hunter in the Galaxy, thinks a million creds is a big deal. Even if bounty hunters in general are not well paid, you'd expect Mr. No. 1 to pull in a lot of money.

 

Similarly, the Basic term "parsec" ( as used in AOTC ) clearly means something more like "15 parsecs".

 

I've always considered SW credits to be more than modern Earth currency. In Bloodlines, I think, Fett asks for (I think) 3 million credits to track and bring back Taun We's data to Kamino, and they refuse. 3 Million credits is still a lot, but you'd think the Kaminoans would be dying to retrieve that data since it brought them such wealth and prestige during the Clone Wars. I could be wrong though...

 

As a counterpoint, The Bounty for Han Solo listed in the West End Games Star Wars Rulerbook was something akin to 250,000 credits (Lukes was closer to 500,000). So he was paid pretty damn well for what amounted to a couple of weeks work in tracking Han Solo down. Plus, he also got Jabba the Hutts Bounty which was about a 100,000 I think.

Remember, in 1974, it was unheard of for Fracisco Scaramanga to make a million dollars a hit.

 

You know, that makes an awful lot of sense, especially given the distances describe on Hoth when Veers destroys the shield generators from 17 kilometers away. It's not so much the distance of the shot as the fact that the Rebels apparently expected their troops to be able to retreat on foot across a snowplain that's the length of the Executor.

 

Bizarrely, I'm pretty sure that no one expected the Rebel Soldiers on foot to make it back.

 

We know a few did from that Visionairies story, though. And it was still about the same time of day, which it sure wouldn't be if they'd actually had to walk 17 kilometers through snow.

 

Must be the off-camera speeders joining the off-camera Dash Rendar who single handedly held off half of the Imperial Army according to Shadows of the Empire.

 

The biggest problem is the low prices causing problems for how much the high prices must be. If one credit = one dollar, then it doesn't make any sense whatsoever for, say, a drink of water on Tatooine to cost "one hundred credits", even if we're trying to make a comical point about how parched Tatooine is -- this would require every two-bit human thug who lives on Tatooine to be a millionaire on paper just to not die of thirst within a year, and if they're millionaires on paper why the hell can't they afford to move off Tatooine and save themselves the ridiculous water bill? If chartering a flight off of Tatooine only costs ten thousand credits?

Seriously, if Luceno wanted to make a point about how parched Tatooine is he could've just had the bartender charge "one credit" for a glass of water, period. If credits are 1977 US dollars then this is an enormous ripoff (can you imagine having to pay five bucks for a glass of water at a bar today?). It doesn't sound as cool, but a humorous exaggeration will by nature screw up canon no matter how good it sounds at the time.

 

Why could you possibly want to compare fictious currency to our currency?

Never mind, but bear in mind it's mostly american authors, and thus american-value currency values. Aussies and Brits would have made prices higher for what we see as standard prices.

 

I always took the hundred credits for a glass of water thing to be a joke.

Who'd order water in the Mos Eisley Cantina anyway?

 

Those prices, along with most others, weren't established in 1977 (the only prices I can think of being discussed onscreen in the prequels were for a used X-34 landspeeder, for a chartered flight from Tatooine to Alderaan, and for a theoretical ship that cost less than said chartered trip.

Most of the prices we've come to know and expect are from the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, which came a decade later.

EDIT: As for the glass of water thing, I suspect that's the price for offworlders. It's not unusual for places to charge more of the rich tourist folk than of the locals.

 

I kinda think that this is one of those things that was never intended to be thought about this much.

I just always assumed credit = dollar and before now I never wondered or noticed if prices made sense or not.

 

Kardue'sai'Malloc's - Labria's - bounty was for five million credits, which based on 4-LOM/Zuckuss's comments and Fett's tracking of him, was one of if not the largest bounty around, from the classic era to 19 ABY. I suspect Adar Tallon's "50 million credit" bounty was something of a fabrication. . .the Empire would either refuse to fully pay up or just kill whoever brought Tallon to them. That would explain why none of the hot-shot bounty hunters, none of the Fetts or Cyphers or Valances or Zuckusses, went for it.

 

A few quick prices of familiar things for comparison, all from the Star Wars Sourcebook:

Knife (with self-sharpening sheath): 25 credits
Hatchet (with self-sharpening sheath): 35 credits
Rifle: 300 credits
Submachinegun [sic]: 600 credits
Crossbow, Longbow: 200 credits
Work Clothes: 100 credits
Casual Clothes: 75 credits
Business Clothes: 75 credits
Formal Clothes: 100 credits
Local Uniform: 150 credits
Single-person Survival Tent: 200 credits
Tool Harness: 10 credits
Glow Rod (flashlight): 10 credits
Ammo Bandolier: 100 credits
Flares: 5 credits

Costs of vehicles:
Ground car: 50 credits/day (rental), 6,000 credits (new), 1,500 credits (used)
Landspeeder: 75 credits/day (rental), 10,000 credits (new), 2,000 credits (used)
Swoop: 30 credits/day (rental), 5,000 credits (new), 1,000 credits (used)
Speeder Bike: 30 credits/day (rental), 5,000 credits (new), 1,000 credits (used)
Skyhopper: 400 credits/day (rental), 30,000 credits (new), 7,000 credits (used)
Planetary Shuttle: 1,000 credits/day (rental), purchase unlisted
Hyperdrive Shuttle: 1,200+ credits/day (rental), purchase unlisted
Stock Light Freighter: 1,200+ credits/day (rental), 100,000 credits (new), 25,000 credits (used)

Costs of housing:
Hovel: 150-250/month (rental)
Regular Apartment: 250-500/month (rental)
Luxury Apartment: 500-1,400/month (rental)
House: 750-1,800/month (rental), 35,000 (to buy)
Storage Space: 10-100/month (rental)
Established Farm: 1,000-50,000+ (to buy)
New Settlement: 50-50,000 (to buy)

 

On the military and government end of things, a single Imperial-class Star Destroyer is worth ~3.88 Billion Credits, meaning the Imperial State spent some 97 Trillion Credits on the Imperial Star Destroyer fleet over twenty years.

If we consider the Star Destroyer to be the upper-end of the spectrum (and the Executor-class Star Dreadnoughts at least an order of magnitude more expensive), the Imperial State spent a minimum of a few hundred Trillion, to a few quadrillion credits on the Navy alone.

The annual capital ship construction budget of the Empire would be at least 5 Trillion credits, and this would represent only a portion of military appropriations, which is a portion of the galactic state?s budget, which is a portion of the galactic economy?.

Given the size and scope of the galactic economy and the degree to which wealth can be accumulated with conglomerates and CSA members (the Empire drew hundreds of trillions in tribute from the CSA a year) credits could be the equivalent of a modern $1, and space technology could be immensely cheap.