Given the size and diversity of the Locus, it is hardly reasonable to expect its economy to be uniform across many worlds. In spite of this, there are certain elements that are common to most Locus societies.
Commercial transactions are conducted primarily in specie (i.e. gold and silver). Paper currency is rare, not only because the technology is lacking to produce it cheaply, but because most trade routes cross many different countries, so it would be difficult for any country to protect its currency against counterfeiting. For large denominations of currency, the preferred solution is glinten coinage. Glinten coins are highly standardized internationally, which in turn affects smaller denominations leading to similar international standardization. This standardization makes trade much easier.
Actually moving goods can be done by a variety of means of transportation. Teleportation is common between worlds and along major trade routes. Hoverships ply secondary routes, carrying bulk cargo to and from cities. For the shortest routes, hovercarts are preferred due to their ability to maneuver in tight spaces.
Banking is highly variable. Some societies have well-developed banking systems, others find it virtually absent. The role of banks is largely restricted to storing and loaning money, even where they are most common. One impediment to the development of banking is that most Locus economies lack persistent economic growth, but instead go through long cycles around a near-equilibrium. This means that there is a limit to how much money can be lent and still have enough profit behind it to pay interest.
Food production typically occupies around half of the work force. This is much more than in modern society, but much less than most historical societies. The methods for producing food in the Locus are labor-intensive, but also productive enough to sustain a consistent surplus.
Most of the calories in a typical Locus diet are produced by telehorticulture. This method of magically boosting crop yields has replaced agriculture in most places, assuming agriculture was ever used in the first place. The staple crop in telehorticultural societies consists of starchy fruit such as loaffruit.
Much of the remainder of the diet is produced by animal husbandry and fishing. Fishing is greatly assisted by widespread use of hoverships. Animal husbandry is greatly assisted by the use of teratogenesis to create ideal breeds of livestock.
Magic is the keystone sector to the Locus economy. While it is not the largest sector in terms of number of people employed or total value of currency changing hands in it, its products are essential in every facet of life and economic activity.
The main reason that magic does not dominate the economy in terms of total monetary value is due to supply and demand. While demand for magic is high, supply is even higher. Most magic items are mass-produced, and most of these mass-produced items are extremely durable, capable of lasting for generations or even centuries without failure. As a result, the price of magic items tends to drop until enchanteries are marginally profitable.
A second reason is that production of magic items requires a significant amount of mundane as well as magical labor. When magic items are produced, a certain percentage of them fail to enchant correctly. When such an enchantment fails, the item cannot be re-enchanted, as the residual magic from the enchantment attempt would contaminate the mass-enchantment process. Such items must be thrown away and recycled for their raw materials, and as a result any labor that goes into creating the base item is wasted. Much of the price increase of a magic item over its mundane counterpart is due to this wastage.
Most materials familiar to Renaissance-era Earth are also familiar to the Locus. This includes all of the classical metals (gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, lead, and mercury) as well as brass from impure copper ores (even though zinc has not been isolated). Ordinary materials such as wood, building stone, cloth, leather, and so on are common as well.
The Locus also contains a number of specifically magical materials. Spellcrystal is used in a wide variety of magic items. Spellcloth is used by enchanters and other magic users to protect themselves against magical accidents, and can double as a spell armor.
Certain materials, though not specifically magical, are commonly produced with the aid of magic. Silk is much more common than in our world due to the widespread availability of silk-producing pseudarthropoids, which produce silk fibers on a far more massive scale than ordinary silkworms. Steel is usually summoned in the form of core steel, or transmuted in the form of spring steel. Rock can be temporarily transmuted into liquid, allowing it to be formed into cast rock.