I recently watched Shadow of the Vampire, which asked the question "What if Max Shreck was a real vampire during the filming of Nosferatu (1922)?"
An interesting premise, but it really bothered me that Shadow of the Vampire pretended that all of Shreck's scenes were filmed at night. When you watch Nosferatu's "nighttime" scenes with Count Orlock, you can clearly see him casting a daylight shadow. Afterwards, they tinted the scenes blue to simulate moonlight.
The Republic in ep 1 is about to get in a war with the Trade Federation over taxes. If a group of space traders think they can win a fight against the galactic government, then maybe the economy is poor and Republic credits aren't trusted.