Trade classification

The Trade Classifications or TC's of a world are a rough socio-economic approximation of a world's sociographic interest to an interstellar Traveller.

• Within each UWP is a remarks section, used to record various information that might be of interest. Its main use, however, is to record Trade classification codes for the use of merchants and other traders.
• Not all world descriptions have trade classifications and/or remarks, some have many of each.
• The trade classification data is only as good as the source. Prospective merchants should be aware that trade classification data may change or be incorrect.

Description / Specifications

Trade Classifications are used in determining the purchase/sale price of goods.

• The area in the UWP for the trade classifications (which are usually abbreviated to two letters) is also used for additional remarks.

Sample Trade Code (TC) Sequence/s

TC Sequences are a newer astrographic convention and have not been fully regularized by the IISS yet.

UWP Typical TC Format Key

[Ag Ni Ga / An Tp / Huma3 Varg7 / O:8511]

Sequence 1 (Primary TC's)	Sequence 2 (Secondary TC's)	Sequence 3 (Demographics)	Sequence 4 (O-C Nature)	Remarks
Ag Ni Ga	An Tp	Huma3 Varg7	O:8511	A mainworld may have all or none of the sequences. None is represented by a dash "-".
Agricultural, nonindustrial garden world. Seq-1 represents primary or common trade codes: economic, planetary, population, etc.	A temperate climate world with an ancients site. Seq-2 represents uncommon tags like climate, zones, politics, or other special features.	30% human & 70% vargr population. Seq-3 represents sophont demographics. The default is HumaW or 100% human. Insignificant percentages of other sophonts. Should equal 100%.	This world is occupied from world 8511 within the same sector. Seq-4 represents political relationships, usually of subjugation. Every "C" has one or more "O" counterparts. A world with coordinates of 8511 is impossible. It's just an example.	This example does not come from any actual world within Charted Space. It is possible for a world to have many colonies.

• "O" worlds are worlds that are occupied from a mother world. It is only possible to be occupied by one world at a time under normal conditions.
• "C" worlds have colonies on other worlds. Worlds that start colonies may have any number of colonies. In fact, some high population worlds within Charted Space have five, six, or more colonies.

Trade Classification Codes

Trade classifications are divided into seven categories:

1. Economic (primary code)
2. Planetary (primary code)
3. Population (primary code)
4. Climate (secondary code)
5. Political (secondary code)
6. Secondary (secondary code)
7. Special (secondary code)

Trade Classification Codes

Class	Code	Type	Remarks	Market (Exports)	Market (Imports)
Cold World	(Co)	Climate	A world with a climate at the lower end of survivability for most sophonts.	n/a	n/a
Frozen	(Fr)	Climate	A world with a climate beyond the lower end of survivability.	n/a	n/a
Hot World	(Ho)	Climate	A world with a climate at the upper end of survivability for most sophonts.	n/a	n/a
Tropic	(Tr)	Climate	A world with a warmer than average climate but is also considered habitable.	n/a	n/a
Tundra	(Tu)	Climate	A world with a colder than average climate but is also considered habitable.	n/a	n/a
Non-agricultural	(Na)	Economic	Non-agricultural worlds are not able to produce quality foodstuffs and must import them.	Non-agricultural Worlds are good sources for Asteroid Belts, and Nonagricultural, Desert, and Vacuum Worlds.	Non-agricultural Worlds are good markets for Industrial worlds.
Pre-agricultrual	(Pa)	Economic	A world suited to being an agricultural world but lacking the population to exploit it (10s of Thousands). Or having too great a population to have suitable agricultural resources for export. (100s of millions)	n/a	n/a
Pre-Industrial	(Pi)	Economic	It is a world working toward being an industrial world but lacks the population to do so. (10s or 100s of millions)	n/a	n/a
Pre-rich	(Pr)	Economic	A world suited to becoming a Rich world, but lacking the population to become Rich. (100's of thousands). Or having too many people to be rich (billions)	n/a	n/a
Rich	(Ri)	Economic	Rich worlds have high-grade living conditions. They have ideal breathable atmospheres and moderate populations (millions to 100s of millions)	They are good sources of cargoes for Agricultural, Desert, Industrial, High Population, Rich, and Non-agricultural Worlds.	Rich Worlds are good markets for Asteroid Belts, and Agricultural, High Population, Industrial, Low Population, Rich, and Water Worlds.
Agricultural	(Ag)	Economic	A reasonable atmosphere and available surface water, which may be ideal for agriculture with a moderate population (100s of thousands to 10s of millions)	Agricultural goods market well to Desert, Fluid Seas, Poor, Water Worlds, and Industrial Worlds.	Agricultural Worlds are good markets for Industrial Worlds, Agricultural Worlds, Barren Worlds (...for new plant and animal strains), and Rich Worlds.
Industrial	(In)	Economic	Industrial worlds have large production and manufacturing bases. It has an un-breathable atmosphere and high population (Billions or more)	Industrial goods sell well on most worlds.	Industrial Worlds are good markets for most goods.
Asteroid Belt	(As)	Planetary	A ring of many small worldlets (planetoids), not capable of retaining an atmosphere or water.	Asteroid Belt goods market well to Industrial, Non-agricultural, Vacuum Worlds, and Asteroid Belts.	Asteroid Belts are good markets for Agricultural, Industrial, Non-agricultural, and Vacuum Worlds.
Desert World	(De)	Planetary	Desert worlds have no free-standing water.	Desert World goods sell well to Desert and Nonagricultural Worlds.	They are good markets for Agricultural, Desert, Industrial, Nonagricultural, and Rich Worlds.
Fluid World	(Fl)	Planetary	A fluid world has an ocean or oceans of a liquid other than water, (e.g., ammonia or methane).	Non-water oceans may be sources of raw materials, and the World's products sell well on Industrial and Fluid Worlds.	Worlds with fluid oceans are good markets for Fluid and Industrial Worlds.
Garden World	(Ga)	Planetary	A world hospitable to most sophonts (...AKA a "paradise"), which does not require protective equipment.	Garden worlds tend to have high populations and be very productive agriculturally. They tend to produce a wide variety of exportable products.	Garden worlds also tend to have very active markets, which buy almost any kind of import product.
Hellworld	(He)	Planetary	A world with a tainted atmosphere and little or no surface water.	n/a	n/a
Ice-Capped	(Ic)	Planetary	A world with little or no atmosphere with all of its water frozen.	Goods from Ice-capped Worlds sell well on Industrial Worlds.	The worlds are poor markets.
Locked	(Lk)	Planetary	A tidally locked world does not rotate like most planets do. It has one face locked to the gravity source, usually a star, and the other locked away from the gravity source, making for extremely warm weather on one side and cold on the other.	n/a	n/a
Ocean World	(Oc)	Planetary	Ocean worlds are covered with very deep oceans with less than 1% of their land above sea level.	n/a	n/a
Poor	(Po)	Planetary	Poor worlds have thin atmospheres and little or no surface water, making them poor places to live.	They are not good sources of cargoes.	Poor Worlds are markets for Industrial Worlds.
Twilight Zone	(Tz)	Planetary	The world is tide locked to the primary, giving a hot pole, a cold pole and a twilight zone between.	n/a	n/a
Vacuum World	(Va)	Planetary	Single worlds with no atmosphere.	They are good sources of cargoes for Asteroid Belts, Industrial Worlds, and Vacuum Worlds.	Vacuum Worlds are markets for goods from Asteroid Belts, and Industrial, Nonagricultural and Vacuum Worlds.
Water World	(Wa)	Planetary	Water worlds have 90% or more of their surface covered in an ocean of water (H2O).	They are good sources of cargoes for Industrial, Rich, and Water Worlds.	Water Worlds are good markets for Industrial and Water Worlds
Subsector Capital	(Cp)	Political	The capital of the local region, usually a subsector in size.	n/a	n/a
Sector Capital	(Cs)	Political	The capital of a group of hundreds of star systems, typically a sector in size.	n/a	n/a
Imperial Capital	(Cx)	Political	The overall capital of an interstellar government.	n/a	n/a
Colony	(Cy)	Political	The world is a colony of another, larger and more important world nearby.	n/a	n/a
Barren World	(Ba)	Population	A Barren world has no population, government, or law level.	Goods from Barren Worlds are raw materials mined or gathered by a ship crew. They are poor sources of cargoes and resources.	Barren worlds cannot be markets.
Die Back	(Di)	Population	The die back world was once settled and developed, but the inhabitants have either died off or left leaving behind the remnants of their civilization.	n/a	n/a
High Population	(Hi)	Population	A world with a billion or more in population.	High Population World goods, because of the economy of scale for production, sell well on High Population, Low Population, and Rich Worlds.	High Population Worlds are good markets for Agricultural, Industrial, High Population, and Rich Worlds.
Low Population	(Lo)	Population	A world with a population less than 10,000.	Low Population World cargoes sell well to Industrial and Rich Worlds.	Low Population Worlds are rarely self-supporting; they are excellent markets for High Population and Agricultural Worlds.
Nonindustrial	(Ni)	Population	Nonindustrial worlds have population 10s of thousands to millions, lacking the population to be self supporting.	They are sources of goods for Industrial Worlds; their goods sell poorly on Nonindustrial Worlds.	Nonindustrial Worlds are markets for goods from Industrial Worlds.
Pre-high	(Ph)	Population	A world with over a hundred million people, but not yet at a billion.	n/a	n/a
Farming	(Fa)	Secondary	A world devoted to agriculture.	n/a	n/a
Mining	(Mi)	Secondary	A world located in an Industrial system being exploited for mineral resources.	n/a	n/a
Military Rule	(Mr)	Secondary	A world under overall control of the local military (...regardless of government type).	n/a	n/a
Penal Colony	(Pe)	Secondary	A colony devoted to housing prisoners.	n/a	n/a
Prison Camp	(Px)	Secondary	A prison for criminals or other exiles.	n/a	n/a
Red	(Re)	Secondary	A world with restricted access, either to protect the indigenous life forms, to protect available resources, or other reasons.	n/a	n/a
Reserve	(Re)	Secondary	A world with restricted access, either to protect the indigenous life forms, to protect available resources, or other reasons.	n/a	n/a
Data Repository	(Ab)	Special	The world has a centralized collection for information and data.	n/a	n/a
Ancients Site	(An)	Special	A high-tech remnant of the now-vanished Ancients.	n/a	n/a
Construct	(Ax)	Special	An unusually large and artificial construct, e.g. Rosettes, Ringworlds, etc.	n/a	n/a
Dangerous	(Da)	Special	A world with an environment, laws, customs, life forms, or other conditions make it dangerous to visitors.	n/a	n/a
Forbidden	(Fo)	Special	This is a world considered "Forbidden", with an environment, laws, customs, life forms, or other conditions that make it extremely dangerous to visitors. Everyone is forbidden to travel here.	n/a	n/a
Puzzle	(Pz)	Special	A world with an environment, laws, customs, life forms, or other conditions that are not well understood and might be a danger to visitor.	n/a	n/a
Research Station	(Rs)	Special	An experimental research facility.	n/a	n/a
Satellite	(Sa)	Special	The main world is a satellite of either a gas giant or another world.	n/a	n/a
X-Boat Station	(Xb)	Special	An Imperial facility for rapid message transmission.	Worlds with X-Boat Stations tend to be smaller, low-population locations with no significant exports.	X-Boat Stations tend to be smaller, low-population locations suitable to smaller import traders.

Notes: Secondary trade codes apply to worlds in the system that are the Main World or a Satellite World.

History & Background / Dossier

The TC System is a time-honored practice of the IISS.

References and Contributors

This article has metadata.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Don Perrin. Starships (Imperium Games, 1996), 46.Marc Miller. Starships (Game Designers Workshop, 1977), 46.Marc Miller, Robert Eaglestone, Don McKinney. Starships (Far Future Enterprises, 2019), 46.Thomas L. Bont, Robert Prior, Christopher Thrash. Starships (Steve Jackson Games, 2003), 46.
• Marc Miller. Worlds and Adventures (Game Designers Workshop, 1977), 16.Marc Miller, Robert Eaglestone, Don McKinney. Worlds and Adventures (Far Future Enterprises, 2019), 16.
• Marc Miller. Scouts (Game Designers Workshop, 1983), 32.
• Marc Miller. Referee's Manual (Game Designers Workshop, 1987), 25,48.
• Citation Missing - Traveller The New Era
• Marc Miller. Marc Miller's Traveller (Imperium Games, 1996), 132,135.
• Citation Missing - Traveller D20
• Marc Miller. T5 Core Rules (Far Future Enterprises, 2013), 410.
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science