The Ferengi Culture
Although the first known contact between the Federation and the Ferengi took place in 2364, the USS Stargazer, under command of Captain Jean Luc Picard, was attacked some years earlier at Zeta Maxia by a ship that they did not realise was a Ferengi.
The Ferengi culture is entirely based on capitalism. Social standings, military ranks, and political status are all determined by wealth and the influence it can buy. The Ferengi live by a strict code of honour, though its ethics might be questionable from many other races' point of view. These guidelines are laid out in the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. Its words are memorized by Ferengi children, who are expected to repeat them on command. The Ferengi culture finds the concept of organised labour to be abhorrent, since such things can interfere with the exploitation of workers. Similarly, Ferengi labour contracts never provide for sick leave, vacations, or paid overtime for employees.
Ferengi consider the sanctity of a contract to be the cornerstone of their civilisation. Breaking a contract is unthinkable, and will generally result in the offender having his Ferengi Business license revoked and all his assets seized and him becoming a pariah in Ferengi society.
Ferengi are sexist in the extreme and until very recently, would not allow their females the honour of clothing . In addition, Ferengi females were kept house-bound , uneducated and wholly dependant on their male counterparts. It was illegal for Ferengi females to earn profit or to quote from the Rules of Acquisition. They were also forbidden to travel or to talk to strangers. Ferengi traditions required the females of the family to prepare and serve meals, and to soften the food of their males by chewing it for them. Most of this has been changed only recently, but a number of hard-core traditional factions still remain.
Interestingly, Ferengi males often find human females very attractive. Ferengi considered pregnancy to be a rental, with the father being termed the lessee. When a young Ferengi males reached adulthood and was about to leave home, he traditionally raised capital by auctioning his boyhood treasures.
Ferenginar, the homeworld of the Ferengi, is a Class M planet. Ferenginar is the location of the Sacred Marketplace and the Tower of Commerce, which is the headquarters of the FCA - the Ferengi Commerce Authority. Ferenginar has an extremely wet climate, so much so that the Ferengi language has 178 different words for rain. ( They have NO word for crisp ). A terrible financial decline in the mid 24th Century, caused rampant inflation and currency devaluation. This catastrophe became known as the Great Monetary Collapse.
The Ferengi Futures Exchange, is a market based on Ferenginar, facilitating sale of commodities and securities upon agreement of future delivery.
The Ferengi Commence Authority is the governing agency of the Ferengi culture. Concerned with business practices and the enforcement of trade laws, the offices of the agency are located on the 40th floor of the Tower of Commerce .
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