Transtellars after Laccoon II

We have examples in the relatively recent past with things like the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company. To a vastly lesser extent we have Hudson's Bay Company. There were others.

East India Company essentialy operated as a Nation-State with it's own Navy (both armed merchant ships and what should be considered actual warships) plus local governers for the territory it held either outright as sovereign rulers or though it's system of trade negotiators and agents. It fought wars, defended territory, invaded countries, co-oped local rulers.

Nothing new, just give them starships and ability to take and hold economic (and political) power along with being able to bring their own military or those of friendly (or original parent nation) to focus on problems they can't resolve though strictly "trade" deals.

It's the excesses that find the way into history.

Sepoy Uprising?

Nico wrote:Sepoy Uprising?

That's what Gov. Barregos is planning for the Maya sector.

Brigade XO wrote:We have examples in the relatively recent past with things like the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company. To a vastly lesser extent we have Hudson's Bay Company. There were others.

East India Company essentialy operated as a Nation-State with it's own Navy (both armed merchant ships and what should be considered actual warships) plus local governers for the territory it held either outright as sovereign rulers or though it's system of trade negotiators and agents. It fought wars, defended territory, invaded countries, co-oped local rulers.

Nothing new, just give them starships and ability to take and hold economic (and political) power along with being able to bring their own military or those of friendly (or original parent nation) to focus on problems they can't resolve though strictly "trade" deals.

It's the excesses that find the way into history.

Grins... exactly the reference I was hoping would leap up!! So how does Manticore/the GA, etc. take down said types of enterprises? given that they really aren't a healthy group to keep around...

Same way John Company went out of business: its activities became an embarrassment to the home government, and it was stripped of its private empire.

All companies are based somewhere; they escape oversight only to the extent that the overseers are happy to have it that way. I would expect that many of the worst offenders out in the Verge and Protectorates are based in places that don't give a rat's tuckus about how they operate 'out there' as long as they behave at home. They may find that they have a lot less support in the future than they've enjoyed in the past. Others probably haven't behaved nearly as badly - and may have home governments that have been keeping them on a shorter leash, or at least would have if they'd made the mistake of drawing unfavourable attention to their operations. And, of course, there's no doubt a substantial number of transtellars that aren't involved out there at all, and haven't wanted to be.

SharkHunter wrote:

Brigade XO wrote:We have examples in the relatively recent past with things like the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company. To a vastly lesser extent we have Hudson's Bay Company. There were others.

East India Company essentialy operated as a Nation-State with it's own Navy (both armed merchant ships and what should be considered actual warships) plus local governers for the territory it held either outright as sovereign rulers or though it's system of trade negotiators and agents. It fought wars, defended territory, invaded countries, co-oped local rulers.

Nothing new, just give them starships and ability to take and hold economic (and political) power along with being able to bring their own military or those of friendly (or original parent nation) to focus on problems they can't resolve though strictly "trade" deals.

It's the excesses that find the way into history.

Grins... exactly the reference I was hoping would leap up!! So how does Manticore/the GA, etc. take down said types of enterprises? given that they really aren't a healthy group to keep around...

Louis R wrote:Same way John Company went out of business: its activities became an embarrassment to the home government, and it was stripped of its private empire.

All companies are based somewhere; they escape oversight only to the extent that the overseers are happy to have it that way. I would expect that many of the worst offenders out in the Verge and Protectorates are based in places that don't give a rat's tuckus about how they operate 'out there' as long as they behave at home. They may find that they have a lot less support in the future than they've enjoyed in the past. Others probably haven't behaved nearly as badly - and may have home governments that have been keeping them on a shorter leash, or at least would have if they'd made the mistake of drawing unfavourable attention to their operations. And, of course, there's no doubt a substantial number of transtellars that aren't involved out there at all, and haven't wanted to be.

At the scale being talked about, they are larger and more powerful than the government of any planet. These have had literally a thousand years to grow and develope.

How well are the most exploitative transtellers going to do with out the OFS backing them up with the FF and Gendarmerie?

I could well see some of the smarter scoundrels deciding to pack their bags with what ever portable wealth they have on hand and find some place nice to live out their lives.

pnakasone wrote:How well are the most exploitative transtellers going to do with out the OFS backing them up with the FF and Gendarmerie?

It depends, how much profit is there to be had? It has never been hard to recruit thugs to break heads. And if there is enough money in it to justify owning combat spacecraft, they can do that too without breaking the bank. DDs are not that expensive if you have profit every year greater than the GSP of a core world.

kzt wrote:

pnakasone wrote:How well are the most exploitative transtellers going to do with out the OFS backing them up with the FF and Gendarmerie?

It depends, how much profit is there to be had? It has never been hard to recruit thugs to break heads. And if there is enough money in it to justify owning combat spacecraft, they can do that too without breaking the bank. DDs are not that expensive if you have profit every year greater than the GSP of a core world.

True. But it is cheaper for them to pay the OFS to provide such services.

Then the issue of making sure they officially do not have anything to do with the dirty work as that was done by the OFS. Of course the OFS will claim that they where just helping the local legitimate government deal with violent criminal rabble in a completely legal and moral way.

pnakasone wrote:True. But it is cheaper for them to pay the OFS to provide such services.

Then the issue of making sure they officially do not have anything to do with the dirty work as that was done by the OFS. Of course the OFS will claim that they where just helping the local legitimate government deal with violent criminal rabble in a completely legal and moral way.

If it is then how is this a huge profit center for the league?

But the same argument works for the forces of the corp. if you are large enough and heavily enough armed. Particulary when there is no overall cerebral government that has any control over them.