It is shown that, for any field $\mathbb{F}\subseteq \mathbb{R}$, any ordered vector space structure of $\mathbb{F}^{n}$ with Riesz interpolation is given by an inductive limit of a sequence with finite stages $(\mathbb{F}^{n},\mathbb{F}_{\geq 0}^{n})$ (where $n$ does not change). This relates to a conjecture of Effros and Shen, since disproven, which is given by the same statement, except with $\mathbb{F}$ replaced by the integers, $\mathbb{Z}$. Indeed, it shows that although Effros and Shen’s conjecture is false, it is true after tensoring with $\mathbb{Q}$.

Dimension groups (not countable) that are also real ordered vector spaces can be obtained as direct limits (over directed sets) of simplicial real vector spaces (finite dimensional vector spaces with the coordinatewise ordering), but the directed set is not as interesting as one would like; for instance, it is not true that a countable-dimensional real vector space that has interpolation can be represented as such a direct limit over a countable directed set. It turns out this is the case when the group is additionally simple, and it is shown that the latter have an ordered tensor product decomposition. In an appendix, we provide a huge class of polynomial rings that, with a pointwise ordering, are shown to satisfy interpolation, extending a result outlined by Fuchs.