Sovereign Empires runs on a stock-and-flow economy. You hold a stock of each resource and earn (or burn) a flow of it over time. Let a flow stay negative and the stock drains, so the economy is something you steer rather than a number that only climbs.
How it flows
Round after round, your cities and districts produce, your connected buildings add their output, your armies draw their upkeep, and your population eats and then grows or shrinks. Keep the flows positive and your stocks build; let them slip and things start to fail.
Where it is stored
Currency is a single empire-wide treasury that you spend from one pool. The physical resources are stored locally, in your cities and their districts. The full picture is on the Resources page.
Generalists and specialists
A city gives a generalist baseline across everything, enough to stay alive. Claimed land built out into districts is how you specialize and produce far more of any one resource, at the cost of the build-out and the ground you tie up.
Where you expand shapes what you can produce. How you build shapes what you do produce.
The Economy branch covers Resources and the Population that both works the economy and is paid out of it.
This article reflects the game in active development and will change as systems evolve.