6. ECONOMY AND POPULATION
As the Emperor you don’t deal with trivialities and give only generic orders regarding economy. Typically, the Empire will grow economically on its own with minor adjustments required from the Emperor.

There are five industries:
* Agriculture (farms) those provide food which is consumed by the population. It affects population growth and happiness (mouse over the food icon on the top panel for details). Do not let the food coverage fall below 50% or you will face starvation.
* Mining (mines) those extract minerals which are used to make ships (mouse over the minerals icon on the top panel for details). Note that low manufacturing capacity can limit how many minerals can be processed into ships (but that's rarely a bottleneck).
* Refining (refineries) those extract precious gas which is then converted to electricity. It’s vital to keep the electricity going (every 10% of electricity shortage a new negative effect is introduced, mouse over the electricity icon on the top panel for details).
* Manufacturing (factories) those provide free upkeep for imperial ships (mouse over the coin icon below the Fleet tab on the top panel for details) and determine how many minerals per turn can be processed into ships (mouse over the minerals icon below the Industry tab for details). It’s vital to invest in those in order to maintain a big ships count, otherwise the Empire might face bankruptcy.
* Services (offices) those provide extra money (check Finances tab for details).

Shipyard:
There is only one Imperial Shipyard located on Terra. All ships are produced there and then send to squadrons. You can order new ships via Fleet tab, you do so by ordering how many ships of what kind should be in all squadrons in a given fleet, you can also set fleet reinforcements priorities. Based on priorities and quotas you set new ships will be ordered and constructed. Production of new ships costs minerals and also require manufacturing capacity of factories. Repairing ships is free.

Each planet has planetary governor who builds whatever he/she see fit. Each planet can support a limited number of industrial facilities (usable planet size which ranges between 10 and 200). If the planet has no more space for industrial facilities the governor will replace the old ones. The rate of construction depends on the local planetary budget which can be affected by the imperial tax and Infrastructure budget (check Finances/Tax and Finances/Budget tabs).

To increase the number of certain industries you can:
* Change industrial priorities (check Industry tab) which affects Empire wide what planetary governors will tend to build (excluding nonsense cases, a governor of a desert planet will never build farms even if the agriculture priority is at maximum).
* Set planet’s specialization (check Planet/Administration tab) which affects what the planetary governor of this particular planet will build.
* Colonize/conquer planets of certain types (Terran type planets are best for growing food, Lava planets have frequently best minerals, gas can be found on Jungle planets, etc).

To increase efficiency of industries you can also:
* Research a technology (check Research tab) that increases output of an industry or all industries (note that you also get Industrialization bonus for the level of Construction science).
* Grant an ‘Economic subsidy’ to a planet (check Planet/Administration tab).
* Make sure there is a big population which provide a decent workforce which grants a bonus to industries output (check Planet/Economy tab).
* Assure a decent development level of imperial planets.

Population grows on its own as long as there is at least 50% food coverage (but more food is highly recommended since it speeds growth rate) and the planetary maximum population has not been reached. Population pays taxes (check Finances/Tax tab), provide workforce (bonus to industries output) and grants a bonus to research (check the research icon on the top panel for details).