Post by thechairman on Apr 1, 2014 2:50:56 GMT
[Apologies for my absence from the forum... the past month has been hectic. I wasn't able to write a proper introduction to my empire so I copied this from a text I found at the library...]
Excerpt from:
Case Studies in Astropolitical Economy: a comparative perspective. 7th Ed. Kuchinski K, eds. Posara Press.
"CHAPTER 23
Imperio Ex Imperium: The Interstellar Trading Company and space empire development by supra-plenipotentiary corporate entities
The Interstellar Trading Company of Rasalas VII presents an interesting case in the study of astropolitical economy. Historically, interstellar colonization and galactic diplomacy have been the province of sovereign planetary powers. As detailed in the introductory chapters of this text, this is typified by the 'homeworld model of space empire': spacefaring civilization, due to its intensive requirements for social organization and industrial mobilization, emerges from planets whose political and economic structures have consolidated themselves at the planetary level, in global governments and globalized economies (Bae'thy'nx et al. 2291). The logistical burdens of maintaining a military and commercial presence in far-flung star systems, along with dependence of these colonial outposts on the homeworld, place interstellar empire in the category of public projects whose undertaking can only be effectively assumed by the state apparatus of sovereign planetary governments.
For reasons that remain the subject of intense scholarly debate, the homeworld model was not followed during the emergence of spacefaring civilization on Rasalas VII (Rodgerson and Poaeqlator 2378). Instead, responsibility for the project of spreading Rasalian civilization to distant star systems was assumed by a private corporate body originally formed for solely commercial purposes. The first royal charter for the Directors and Company of Merchants of Rasalas VII Trading Into The Interstellar Territories sanctioned the extraction and commerce of basic commodities from extra-Rasalian star systems and limited colonial development to support these ventures. A Board of Trade was created as a sub-committee of the Table of Regents, the governing body of Rasalas VII, to scrutinize company operations.
Over time, however, forces without and within the company resulted in its unique evolution towards an entity whose power lies ambiguously between a mere plenipotentiary of the Rasalian Regents a full sovereign in its own right. As the scope of the Interstellar Trading Company’s operations grew, the administration of its colonies became increasing complex and the protection of its employees, property, and commercial claims became harder to ensure under existing statute. Having neither the means nor the appetite for interstellar empire and galactic diplomacy, the Regents revised the company’s charter, empowering it to sign treaties, maintain its own standing army and navy, declare war, and adjudicate civil matters in the colonies. The Board of Trade was relegated to a largely advisory function with merely cursory powers. The essence of this evolution is aptly captured in the new motto adopted by company upon the ascent of the revised royal charter: Imperio ex imperium (from the Ancient Terran, literally “empire outside of empire”).
The classic explanation for the emergence of this peculiar model of space empire focuses on the historical coincidence of two factors at the time when trans-warp technologies were maturing on Rasalas VII: entrenched mercantile modes of economic organization and the weak presence of sovereign political structures in the public consciousness as arbiters of social and civil matters (Dar'qun 2346). Anteinterstellar Rasalian politics were characterized by feuds between rival aristocratic houses for membership at the Table of Regents, a governing body whose sole function seemed to be the preservation of the aristocratic houses who gained membership (Hyward et al. 2284). In this arbitrary and uncertain political climate, economic activity was organized around smaller units of social structure, notably tribal and provincial guilds. Despite the inefficiencies inherent in such structure, primitive spacefaring was well-developed; the Rasalas system is rich is planets, including a huge H-class world on a twin orbit with the Rasalas homeworld. This early Rasalian intrasteller commerce played an important role in stimulating astroscience, and soon the existence of numerous warp points from Rasalas to other star systems was suspected by the Rasalian astrophysicists (Baedor and Lyzk 2314).
The maturation of trans-warp technologies ushered in an era where Rasalian society was dominated by the typical tropes and organizational modes of space exploration. Small spaceports and independent shipwrights flourished. Petty merchants and artisans braved the warp-points in small craft, returning with exotic crystals, tales of bizarre new planets, and whispers of alien civilizations in distant star systems. These discoveries captured the imagination of Rasalian civil society and left a deep imprint on art, science, politics, and economics. A review of the literature reveals a scholarly consensus that these were necessary preconditions for the formation of an imperial political identity (Zyg’xhu’lai et al. 2353). The proliferation of Rasalian civilization, as it was imagined at the time, naturally became the telos of this newly forged imperial identity.
The construction of a political identity imbued with a sophisticated imperial and cultural teleology precipitated the aggregation of higher economic organization (Jourtha 2312). It was against this backdrop that a consortium of large financial and industrial interests approached the Table of Regents with a petition for exclusive commercial rights to future trade through all warp-points extending from the Rasalas system. The consortium, in exchange for this tremendously lucrative consideration, promised economies of scale and efficient interstellar trade that were simply not possible by small-scale mercantile operations. The Table of Regents also recognized an opportunity to benefit from the consortium’s proposal: it would fill their treasury and harness what promised to become a substantial economic power base into one, unified, easy-to-manage political entity.
The degree to which the Regents anticipated the immense changes the revised company charter would have on the prevailing order within Rasalian political society is unclear. Some scholars believe that support for the creation of a strong extra-regal structure was instrumental, with the Interstellar Trading Company viewed by the aristocratic houses as a powerful playing piece in their games of court (Probert 2348). Other scholars maintain that some of the more progressive and reform-friendly houses supported the creation of a monopolistic supra-plenipotentiary corporate entity as a counter-balance to the self-serving aristocratic system and a means to inspire better government by, in essence, introducing a competitor into the political market place (Nujk'op 2386).
[…]
Excerpt from:
Case Studies in Astropolitical Economy: a comparative perspective. 7th Ed. Kuchinski K, eds. Posara Press.
"CHAPTER 23
Imperio Ex Imperium: The Interstellar Trading Company and space empire development by supra-plenipotentiary corporate entities
The Interstellar Trading Company of Rasalas VII presents an interesting case in the study of astropolitical economy. Historically, interstellar colonization and galactic diplomacy have been the province of sovereign planetary powers. As detailed in the introductory chapters of this text, this is typified by the 'homeworld model of space empire': spacefaring civilization, due to its intensive requirements for social organization and industrial mobilization, emerges from planets whose political and economic structures have consolidated themselves at the planetary level, in global governments and globalized economies (Bae'thy'nx et al. 2291). The logistical burdens of maintaining a military and commercial presence in far-flung star systems, along with dependence of these colonial outposts on the homeworld, place interstellar empire in the category of public projects whose undertaking can only be effectively assumed by the state apparatus of sovereign planetary governments.
For reasons that remain the subject of intense scholarly debate, the homeworld model was not followed during the emergence of spacefaring civilization on Rasalas VII (Rodgerson and Poaeqlator 2378). Instead, responsibility for the project of spreading Rasalian civilization to distant star systems was assumed by a private corporate body originally formed for solely commercial purposes. The first royal charter for the Directors and Company of Merchants of Rasalas VII Trading Into The Interstellar Territories sanctioned the extraction and commerce of basic commodities from extra-Rasalian star systems and limited colonial development to support these ventures. A Board of Trade was created as a sub-committee of the Table of Regents, the governing body of Rasalas VII, to scrutinize company operations.
Over time, however, forces without and within the company resulted in its unique evolution towards an entity whose power lies ambiguously between a mere plenipotentiary of the Rasalian Regents a full sovereign in its own right. As the scope of the Interstellar Trading Company’s operations grew, the administration of its colonies became increasing complex and the protection of its employees, property, and commercial claims became harder to ensure under existing statute. Having neither the means nor the appetite for interstellar empire and galactic diplomacy, the Regents revised the company’s charter, empowering it to sign treaties, maintain its own standing army and navy, declare war, and adjudicate civil matters in the colonies. The Board of Trade was relegated to a largely advisory function with merely cursory powers. The essence of this evolution is aptly captured in the new motto adopted by company upon the ascent of the revised royal charter: Imperio ex imperium (from the Ancient Terran, literally “empire outside of empire”).
The classic explanation for the emergence of this peculiar model of space empire focuses on the historical coincidence of two factors at the time when trans-warp technologies were maturing on Rasalas VII: entrenched mercantile modes of economic organization and the weak presence of sovereign political structures in the public consciousness as arbiters of social and civil matters (Dar'qun 2346). Anteinterstellar Rasalian politics were characterized by feuds between rival aristocratic houses for membership at the Table of Regents, a governing body whose sole function seemed to be the preservation of the aristocratic houses who gained membership (Hyward et al. 2284). In this arbitrary and uncertain political climate, economic activity was organized around smaller units of social structure, notably tribal and provincial guilds. Despite the inefficiencies inherent in such structure, primitive spacefaring was well-developed; the Rasalas system is rich is planets, including a huge H-class world on a twin orbit with the Rasalas homeworld. This early Rasalian intrasteller commerce played an important role in stimulating astroscience, and soon the existence of numerous warp points from Rasalas to other star systems was suspected by the Rasalian astrophysicists (Baedor and Lyzk 2314).
The maturation of trans-warp technologies ushered in an era where Rasalian society was dominated by the typical tropes and organizational modes of space exploration. Small spaceports and independent shipwrights flourished. Petty merchants and artisans braved the warp-points in small craft, returning with exotic crystals, tales of bizarre new planets, and whispers of alien civilizations in distant star systems. These discoveries captured the imagination of Rasalian civil society and left a deep imprint on art, science, politics, and economics. A review of the literature reveals a scholarly consensus that these were necessary preconditions for the formation of an imperial political identity (Zyg’xhu’lai et al. 2353). The proliferation of Rasalian civilization, as it was imagined at the time, naturally became the telos of this newly forged imperial identity.
The construction of a political identity imbued with a sophisticated imperial and cultural teleology precipitated the aggregation of higher economic organization (Jourtha 2312). It was against this backdrop that a consortium of large financial and industrial interests approached the Table of Regents with a petition for exclusive commercial rights to future trade through all warp-points extending from the Rasalas system. The consortium, in exchange for this tremendously lucrative consideration, promised economies of scale and efficient interstellar trade that were simply not possible by small-scale mercantile operations. The Table of Regents also recognized an opportunity to benefit from the consortium’s proposal: it would fill their treasury and harness what promised to become a substantial economic power base into one, unified, easy-to-manage political entity.
The degree to which the Regents anticipated the immense changes the revised company charter would have on the prevailing order within Rasalian political society is unclear. Some scholars believe that support for the creation of a strong extra-regal structure was instrumental, with the Interstellar Trading Company viewed by the aristocratic houses as a powerful playing piece in their games of court (Probert 2348). Other scholars maintain that some of the more progressive and reform-friendly houses supported the creation of a monopolistic supra-plenipotentiary corporate entity as a counter-balance to the self-serving aristocratic system and a means to inspire better government by, in essence, introducing a competitor into the political market place (Nujk'op 2386).
[…]