Why would 24th century Star Trek races still need to trade?

[at Quark's]

I mean, can't they basically replicate anything they need? Yet in series like TNG and DS9, they stumble upon freighter after freighter carrying some ore or other material.

Now, we know that latinum cannot be replicated, and that already feels very artificial to me - just as an excuse to have a material that is regarded as intrinsically valuable for Quark or criminals to obsess over. But I don't think we have ever heard of any other material that cannot be replicated.

So, why do they still trade? Is trading still more (cost-)efficient than replicating the required materials? And if that is true, why is replication of, say a cup of tea on a starship such a casual act, instead of just preparing it the old-fashioned way?

 

[C57D]

I mean, can't they basically replicate anything they need? Yet in series like TNG and DS9, they stumble upon freighter after freighter carrying some ore or other material.

Now, we know that latinum cannot be replicated, and that already feels very artificial to me - just as an excuse to have a material that is regarded as intrinsically valuable for Quark or criminals to obsess over. But I don't think we have ever heard of any other material that cannot be replicated.

So, why do they still trade? Is trading still more (cost-)efficient than replicating the required materials? And if that is true, why is replication of, say a cup of tea on a starship such a casual act, instead of just preparing it the old-fashioned way?

I cannot believe that the cost of replicating a material is more than having it obtained (mined, harvested etc), and flown across multiple parsecs. Plus all the labour costs at every stage, storage costs etc.
Never having been a fan of "no more money" TNG meme, I think it was just an ill thought out aspect of the show. I don't know why they did not just portray a society where there was no want or scarcity or meagre pay for the ordinary worker, but if you wanted the big bucks you still had to work hard for it. But then that would have removed Picard's opportunity to be an arrogant, superior, up his own ass, bas€^=*d to those people from the cryogenic ship.

 

[F. King Daniel]

They've made it clear replicated food isn't as good as the real thing so I assume there are similar feelings towards replicated items, particularly when it comes to trinkets.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Converting Pure Energy to Matter is a expensive process in terms of Energy cost compared to what most Replicators are supposed to do, which is use raw matter stocks and assemble it into your desired item. Ergo having enough of ___ base matter in a stable form for manipulation is important. It would reduce energy consumption for converting one form of matter into another.

If you can take a pre harvested material and just store it in raw form in a matter storage tank of that type, you'd have plenty of material for Replicating as needed without having to use the Replicator to transmogrify one Element into a higher one.

And some elements or Alloys won't be easy to make, impossible to make, or hard to make.

Gold Pressed Latinum can't be replicated.

Neutronium can't be replicated as far as StarFleet tech is concerned.

 

[at Quark's]

They've made it clear replicated food isn't as good as the real thing so I assume there are similar feelings towards replicated items, particularly when it comes to trinkets.

But there's a lot of base material transported too, as I mentioned for example already all kinds of ores. And there are industrial replicators, which could probably take care of that

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

But there's a lot of base material transported too, as I mentioned for example already all kinds of ores. And there are industrial replicators, which could probably take care of that

Some planets will have very little of a specific element or alloy, while others will have more.

And they can trade with each other as needed.

Same with specialty goods that are only made on ___ planet because the crafting / manufacturing that is done on ___ planet with a certain set of conditions / skills.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

A pure desert planet with little to no water could use massive stocks of Water to be transported over for use.

 

[Henoch]

I envision replicators (and transporters) work on the molecular level, not the atomic level. The tech does not create elemental atoms from pure energy, rather, it assembles molecules for stored elements. Latinum must be a very rare, stable high Z element. Cladding the material with gold is probably done for corrosion or radiation protection, and allow it to be formed into any shape. Gold is also pretty.

 

[The Wormhole]

Something to do.