I used space to carry a lot of supplies to escape famine in ancient times

Driven by their own interests, some civilizations began to adopt a series of short-sighted protectionist measures. Among them, setting up trade barriers became their first choice. These trade barriers are like solid but cold walls, ruthlessly blocking the originally freely flowing goods and technologies.

At various interstellar trade ports, the once busy scene was gradually replaced by a tense and oppressive atmosphere. Huge interstellar cargo ships lined up in long queues, waiting for customs inspection. However, the inspection procedures have become extremely cumbersome, and various new regulations and restrictions have emerged one after another. Some civilizations have raised tariffs to an astonishing extent. Commodities that originally only had to pay a small amount of taxes and fees have now seen tariffs double or even dozens of times increased.

Take a special alloy that is widely used in the universe for repairing interstellar spacecraft as an example. Before the trade dispute, the tariff on this alloy when it was shipped from its production site to other planets was only 5% of its value. But now, some civilizations have raised the tariff to 50% in order to protect their own related industries. This has caused the price of the alloy to soar on the importing planet, resulting in a sharp increase in the costs of companies that rely on this alloy for spacecraft repair and manufacturing. Many small interstellar spacecraft repair plants have had to reduce their business volume and even face the risk of bankruptcy because they cannot afford such high costs. And those interstellar transportation companies that originally planned to purchase new spacecraft have also postponed their procurement plans due to the increase in spacecraft prices, which further affects the transportation efficiency of interstellar trade.

For some high-tech products, the impact of trade barriers is even more serious. Some civilizations have advanced artificial intelligence technology, and the intelligent navigation systems they produce have extremely high accuracy and reliability in space navigation. However, in order to support similar industries in their own countries that are still in their infancy, other civilizations have set high tariffs on imported intelligent navigation systems and added many complex certification procedures. These certification procedures not only require products to meet strict technical standards, but also conduct detailed reviews of the background and production processes of the manufacturing companies. This makes imported intelligent navigation systems expensive and limited in supply, which seriously affects the safety and efficiency of interstellar navigation. Many interstellar spacecraft have to continue using old versions of navigation systems or use local substitutes of varying quality.

In addition to raising tariffs, some civilizations have also imposed strict restrictions on import quotas for goods. They set an upper limit on the import quantity of each commodity within a certain period of time, which makes the supply of goods on the market extremely unstable. In the interstellar agricultural product trade, some planets that mainly grow special interstellar crops produce nutritious fruits with unique tastes that were originally popular in the universe. However, under trade disputes, the planets that import these fruits have drastically reduced their import quotas. This has caused the price of fruits to plummet in the production area, and fruit farmers are faced with the dilemma of having a good harvest but nowhere to sell, and a large number of fruits are rotting in warehouses. On the importing planets, due to supply shortages, the price of fruits remains high, which is unaffordable for ordinary people, which has a serious negative impact on the local food market and the quality of life of residents.

The circulation of technology has also been greatly hindered. In the development of the cosmic economy, the sharing and exchange of technology is an important driving force for the progress of various civilizations. However, trade disputes have brought the spread of technology to a standstill. Some civilizations with advanced energy conversion technologies would have authorized these technologies to other civilizations in exchange for corresponding resources or other technologies. But now, they are worried that the output of technology will enhance the competitiveness of other civilizations, which will be disadvantageous to themselves, so they have stopped technology licensing. This has put those planets that rely on imported technology to improve their own energy industries in a dilemma. They cannot obtain the latest technology and can only continue to use old, inefficient energy conversion methods, resulting in rising energy costs and tight energy supply.

In the field of interstellar communication technology, the situation is not optimistic either. A new quantum communication encryption technology was born in a technologically advanced civilization, which can greatly improve the security of interstellar communication. Under normal circumstances, this technology will spread rapidly in the universe, and various civilizations will apply it to their own communication systems by purchasing technical patents or cooperating in research and development. However, during the trade dispute, the civilization implemented strict export controls on this technology. The communication companies of other civilizations could not obtain this key technology, which led to bottlenecks in their development of a new generation of communication equipment. The problem of communication security has also become increasingly prominent, affecting the information transmission and commercial cooperation in interstellar trade.

These trade barriers and restrictions are intertwined, forming a complex and chaotic situation, causing the universe trade system to fall into a serious crisis. Interstellar trade routes are no longer prosperous commercial channels, but are full of uncertainty and risks. Many long-term trade partnerships have broken down, and trust between companies has been greatly damaged.

In this chaos, the economies of various civilizations have also been severely impacted. Industries that rely on exports have suffered a heavy blow, with factories closing and workers losing their jobs. Take a civilization that specializes in producing interstellar fashion clothing as an example. Their clothing is famous in the universe for its unique design and exquisite craftsmanship, and the export volume is huge. But with the increase of trade barriers, the sales of their clothing on other planets have dropped sharply. Many clothing manufacturers have had to lay off employees or stop production, and related raw material suppliers, logistics companies, etc. have also been implicated, and the entire industrial chain has been paralyzed.

For industries that rely on imported goods and technologies, their development has also been greatly restricted. Some civilized medical industries need to import advanced medical equipment and special medicines, but trade disputes have made the supply of these materials unstable and expensive. This has led to a decline in the quality of medical services and patients cannot receive timely and effective treatment.

The chaos in the cosmic trade system has also triggered a series of chain reactions. Financial markets have become turbulent, and trade-related stock and bond prices have fluctuated greatly. The exchange rates between interstellar currencies have also lost stability, and some currencies have depreciated rapidly due to the expansion of trade deficits. This has further exacerbated economic uncertainty, causing investors to withdraw funds and making it more difficult for companies to raise funds.

At the interstellar political level, trade disputes have also exacerbated tensions between civilizations. The friendly and cooperative atmosphere originally established through trade has been broken, replaced by mutual accusations and suspicions. Some civilizations have even experienced diplomatic frictions, which poses a threat to the peace and stability of the universe.

Gu Qianning and Chu Mohan watched all this with their own eyes, their hearts full of worry. They knew that if the trade dispute could not be resolved promptly and effectively, the universe economy would be in an irreparable situation, and the previous economic recovery plan would fail. They had to step forward again, find a way to break the deadlock, restore the normal order of the universe trade system, and get the universe economy back on track for healthy development.