ThinksMarkedly wrote:[
Again, not criminals. That would only apply if they had violated the law and since those were Manticore-flagged ships and the legitimate order came from the Manticore government, no Manticore laws were broken. At worst, they violated their contracts and could be sued at a proper court of law (read: in the SEM).
Some systems may pass or may have always had laws saying that if such a contract were violated and no compensation paid, then the violator would not be allowed business in the system again. Others may choose not to do business with Manticore-flagged ships on principle, or on advice of their insurance, or any other reason.
But it's likely the majority will choose to do business with them for the same reasons they did business before Lacöon: because the shipping was faster and/or cheaper. Manticore Merchant Marine shipping had a strategic advantage that did not go away.
And yes, I've had packages go missing with many different mailing and shipping companies. Most of the time, those did not indemnify me. Sometimes when I've shipped, I looked up the insured value and it was usually a very low one. And I can't be sure of what exactly it said, but I remember it saying something about not being liable for loss due to war. Moreover, there are many places in our world where mail or at least the last-mile delivery is still a state monopoly: if you want to ship to those places, you don't have a choice on who will carry your goods.
It is unlikely that the MMM vessels retained or sold any of the cargo they returned to Manticore with. More likely it was placed in Bond at a warehouse (probably near the Junction) although some ships might have been sequestered in a parking orbit somewhere in the system instead offloading all the cargo into storage, especially if it was of significant interest in terms of value.
We didn't hear of Manticore confiscating cargo from SL flagged vessels (or that was in warehouse pending transfer to next carrier), the worst they did with Lacoon I or II was turn SL flagged ships away from the termini they controlled. That would have been enough to cripple or ruin many of the companies involved (particularly small independent ships) because of penalty clauses and missing debt payments on ships etc. Unless Manticore seized shipments owned by SL citizens (or any other) it should be being held somewhere.
What we don't see (not truly germane to the plot at this point -yet) is Manticore generation legal opinion and arguments to preempt such acts by various system on the basis of protecting SEM citizens and property from capricious and unlawful seizures by SL/SLN. Does anyone now running bureaus at the New SL 2.0 really want to content little legalized piracy and brigandry and that Manticore as a Star Nation had no right to recall it's merchant fleet and citizens to prevent their harm? Sure, there will be many that will try but their arguments are going to fall primarily into the kinds of things attempted at Saltash to score points with OFS or the Mandarins.
If cargos were interned into storage by Manticore, they can be returned though just "forwarding" them to the the intended recipient clearly isn't going to satisfy or resolve everything since it is possible the end-user had to replace the goods -if they could- and may have filed a successful insurance claim and or gone out of business. Messy. Very Messy.
Time for the diplomats to take a trip to Sol and work out some structured agreement on what will and will not happen.
And using GA (specifically RMN) warships to run ongoing commerce protection can be a thinly veiled reminder that complaint about SEM protecting it's citizens against the depredations and problems caused by the former government of the SL probably isn't the way to smooth the way of interstellar commerce.