The Alliance of Smugglers and Mercs is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by apemax with an even hand, and notable for its state-planned economy, irreverence towards religion, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, cheerful population of 40.873 billion Smugglers and Mercsians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Smugglers and Mercs City. The average income tax rate is 99.9%.

The frighteningly efficient Smugglers and Mercsian economy, worth a remarkable 8,708 trillion pounds a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism. Average income is an amazing 213,053 pounds, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

City-slickers are jelly of all the farmland the government is giving away, a faint smell of body odour can be detected at several miles' distance from the National Science Park, the government is spending serious cheddar protecting sewer rats, and the government confiscates candy from babies for 'the greater good' of the nation. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Smugglers and Mercs's national animal is the dragon, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is a major religion.

Smugglers and Mercs is ranked 368^th in the world and 9^th in 10000 Islands for Most Cultured, scoring 569 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.