Faction:Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild - Revision history

Erk: /* History */ add a pipe

2007-12-21T07:10:56Z

‎History: add a pipe

Erk: /* Trade with Other Factions */

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‎Trade with Other Factions

Erk: /* The Merchants' Guild */ present tense

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‎The Merchants' Guild: present tense

Erk: /* The Merchant's Guild */ punctuation

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‎The Merchant's Guild: punctuation

Erk: /* Promotion in the Guild */

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‎Promotion in the Guild

Erk: /* Promotion in the Guild */

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‎Promotion in the Guild

Erk: /* A Brief (and spotty) History of the Merchant's Guild */ Whew. This should be readable now

2007-12-21T06:55:59Z

‎A Brief (and spotty) History of the Merchant's Guild: Whew. This should be readable now

Show changes

Zeog at 10:57, 3 January 2006

2006-01-03T10:57:41Z

Pirx: capital/homeworld

2005-06-10T13:26:17Z

capital/homeworld

Pirx: /* A Brief (and spotty) History of the Merchant's Guild */

2005-06-08T09:01:29Z

‎A Brief (and spotty) History of the Merchant's Guild

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 ==History==
-The Guild began its existence as the CMT, the [[Terminology:Cherryh Mercantile Trust]]. For the early history of the CMT, see that article.
+The Guild began its existence as the CMT, the [[Terminology:Cherryh Mercantile Trust|Cherryh Mercantile Trust]]. For the early history of the CMT, see that article.
 ===The Fall of the CMT===

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 ===Trade with Other Factions===
-There is no love lost between the [[Faction:Forsaken|Forsaken]] and the Guild: the much lower profit margins available on return trips never enticed much Guild investment, and Guild price fixing long raised the ire of the Forsaken. Guild presence in Forsaken space is thus limited to border stations, much like the trade relations with the [[Faction:Uln|Uln]] and [[Faction:Rlaan|Rlaan]].
+There is no love lost between the [[Faction:Forsaken|Forsaken]] and the Guild: the much lower profit margins available on return trips never enticed much Guild investment, and Guild price fixing has long raised the ire of the Forsaken. Guild presence in Forsaken space, like the [[Faction:Uln|Uln]] and [[Faction:Rlaan|Rlaan]], is thus limited to border stations.
 Contact with alien trading partners was a great boon to the Guild, as Guild political clout ensured that all major alien traffic would pass through Guild trading stations, that Guild shipping would be awarded nearly all lucrative inter-government contracts calling for human merchants, and so forth. Moreover, no independent trader can so easily call upon the shared resources of the Guild in obtaining appropriate permissions from the Uln and Rlaan governments to conduct business within their borders, or the expertise of a cultural specialist in determining the likely intentions of an alien customer.

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 There is no love lost between the [[Faction:Forsaken|Forsaken]] and the Guild: the much lower profit margins available on return trips never enticed much Guild investment, and Guild price fixing long raised the ire of the Forsaken. Guild presence in Forsaken space is thus limited to border stations, much like the trade relations with the [[Faction:Uln|Uln]] and [[Faction:Rlaan|Rlaan]].
-Contact with alien trading partners was a great boon to the Guild, as Guild political clout ensured that all major alien traffic would pass through Guild trading stations, that Guild shipping would be awarded nearly all lucrative inter-government contracts calling for human merchants, and so forth. Moreover, no independent trader could so easily call upon the shared resources of the Guild in obtaining appropriate permissions from the Uln and Rlaan governments to conduct business within their borders, or the expertise of a cultural specialist in determining the likely intentions of an alien customer.
+Contact with alien trading partners was a great boon to the Guild, as Guild political clout ensured that all major alien traffic would pass through Guild trading stations, that Guild shipping would be awarded nearly all lucrative inter-government contracts calling for human merchants, and so forth. Moreover, no independent trader can so easily call upon the shared resources of the Guild in obtaining appropriate permissions from the Uln and Rlaan governments to conduct business within their borders, or the expertise of a cultural specialist in determining the likely intentions of an alien customer.
 ===Promotion in the Guild===
-Though the upper echelons of the Guild are still plentifully stocked with [[Terminology:Cherryh Mercantile Trust|CMT]] personnel, the Guild favored success over [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepotism nepotism], and many rose through the ranks to positions of power – unlike the larger [[Terminology:Meme|meme-groups]], no grand conversion of belief system is required for acceptance, merely the conviction that profit conquers all, and timely payment of portions thereof.
+Though the upper echelons of the Guild are still plentifully stocked with [[Terminology:Cherryh Mercantile Trust|CMT]] personnel, the Guild favors success over [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepotism nepotism], and many rise through the ranks to positions of power – unlike the larger [[Terminology:Meme|meme-groups]], no grand conversion of belief system is required for acceptance, merely the conviction that profit conquers all, and timely payment of portions thereof.
 The lower tiers of the Guild are full of all sort and manner of small time traders who were willing to trade a fraction of their profits for protection, access, and opportunity. Unlike CMT in the pre-[[Terminology:SPEC (-drive)|SPEC]] period, the smaller independent traders are not actively squashed, and those who achieve success are always initially courted rather than destroyed outright. This is largely because any emerging independent group which appeared to offer a real threat would be rapidly legislated out of existence by favors called in from the Confederation Senate.

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 |capital=[[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]]
 }}
-==The Merchant's Guild==
+==The Merchants' Guild==
-The Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild, better known as the Merchant's Guild or Mercantile Guild, is a powerful indepenent group of merchants. Though mighty, they do not possess a standing military per se, relying instead on private contractors to be their muscle. They do, however, possess potent political clout within the [[Faction:Confederation of Inhabited Worlds|Confederation]], and therefore in most of inhabited space.
+The Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild, better known as the Merchants' Guild or Mercantile Guild, or simply "The Guild", is a powerful indepenent group of merchants. Though mighty, they do not possess a standing military per se, relying instead on private contractors to be their muscle. They do, however, possess potent political clout within the [[Faction:Confederation of Inhabited Worlds|Confederation]], and therefore in most of inhabited space.
 ===Trade with Other Factions===

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 ===Promotion in the Guild===
-Though the upper echelons of the Guild are still plentifully stocked with [[Terminology:Cherryh Mercantile Trust|CMT]] personnel, the Guild favored success over [http://en.wikipedia.org/Nepotism nepotism], and many rose through the ranks to positions of power – unlike the larger [[Terminology:Meme|meme-groups]], no grand conversion of belief system is required for acceptance, merely the conviction that profit conquers all, and timely payment of portions thereof.
+Though the upper echelons of the Guild are still plentifully stocked with [[Terminology:Cherryh Mercantile Trust|CMT]] personnel, the Guild favored success over [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepotism nepotism], and many rose through the ranks to positions of power – unlike the larger [[Terminology:Meme|meme-groups]], no grand conversion of belief system is required for acceptance, merely the conviction that profit conquers all, and timely payment of portions thereof.
 The lower tiers of the Guild are full of all sort and manner of small time traders who were willing to trade a fraction of their profits for protection, access, and opportunity. Unlike CMT in the pre-[[Terminology:SPEC (-drive)|SPEC]] period, the smaller independent traders are not actively squashed, and those who achieve success are always initially courted rather than destroyed outright. This is largely because any emerging independent group which appeared to offer a real threat would be rapidly legislated out of existence by favors called in from the Confederation Senate.

@@ Line 40: / Line 40: @@
 =See also=
-[[Category:Database|Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild]] [[Category:Factions|Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild]]
+[[Category:Database|Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild]]
-[[Category:Subfactions|Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild]]
+[[Category:Faction|Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild]]

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 |name=Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild
 |species=[[Species:Humanity|Humans]]
-|homeworld=[[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]]
+|homeworld=[[Terminology:Earth|Earth]]
 }}
 =A Brief (and spotty) History of the Merchant's Guild=

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 A latecomer to the great sowing of [[Terminology:Earth|Earth]]'s seeds, a too-small planet, previously passed over, became the new home for a group of colonists united more by a desire to leave behind their varied existences in [[Terminology:Solar System|Sol]] than by any common ethos. The colonists struck out from their settlements in the deep canyons and valleys where the air was thicker, clearing out the simple layers of native life, ever so slowly etching [[Species:Humanity|humanity]]'s presence indelibly into the planet's crust. However, the future of their efforts did not lie on the surface of a world, but in the cold of [[Terminology:Space|space]] surrounding it.
-No too-small world can hope to passively hold on to the sort of atmosphere that gives rise to sunny, green meadows alight with frolicking schoolchildren. The release from the domes, from the deep places, would be a Herculean task, but the insights bestowed by modern science had given mere mortal men more abilities than the authors of the ancient demigod had foreseen. In a common goal, the residents of Bantam found new unity and identity. They labored together tirelessly to construct the centerpiece of their [[Terminology:Terraform|terraforming]] effort: a colossal station that would serve as both the shipyard producing and maintaining the resource gathering fleet and the processing center that would amalgamate the offerings of the entire system into sustenance for Bantam's development.
+No too-small world can hope to passively hold on to the sort of atmosphere that gives rise to sunny, green meadows alight with frolicking schoolchildren. The release from the domes, from the deep places, would be a Herculean task, but the insights bestowed by modern science had given mere mortal men more abilities than the authors of the ancient demigod had foreseen. In a common goal, the residents of [[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]] found new unity and identity. They labored together tirelessly to construct the centerpiece of their [[Terminology:Terraform|terraforming]] effort: a colossal station that would serve as both the shipyard producing and maintaining the resource gathering fleet and the processing center that would amalgamate the offerings of the entire system into sustenance for [[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]]'s development.
 It would likely have worked.
-The [[Terminology:Artificial Intelligence#The Nano-Plague|nano-plague]] struck without warning, long before the first human [[Terminology:FTL travel|FTL]] ship would visit the system. Only the near-paranoid levels of over-engineering with which Rainbow station had been constructed saved it from the fate of many of Bantam's residents, too reliant on cheap and plentiful [[Terminology:Artificial Intelligence|nanites]]. It was far too early in the terraforming effort to live in the open, and suddenly overstrained environmental systems caused entire cities to suffocate. Bantam was devastated, losing all vibrancy and vitality in a matter of weeks. What before had been a growing planet-wide civilization was now a collection of frightened outposts of inhabitation. Thus were Rainbow station and its infant fleet of resource gatherers nearly orphaned, the mother planet an invalid. With the station barely able to sustain itself, the stationers were left with the unenviable role of deciding whom amongst Bantam's survivors they could afford to save.
+The [[Terminology:Artificial Intelligence#The Nano-Plague|nano-plague]] struck without warning, long before the first human [[Terminology:FTL travel|FTL]] ship would visit the system. Only the near-paranoid levels of over-engineering with which [[Specific installation:Rainbow station|Rainbow station]] had been constructed saved it from the fate of many of [[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]]'s residents, too reliant on cheap and plentiful [[Terminology:Artificial Intelligence|nanites]]. It was far too early in the terraforming effort to live in the open, and suddenly overstrained environmental systems caused entire cities to suffocate. [[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]] was devastated, losing all vibrancy and vitality in a matter of weeks. What before had been a growing planet-wide civilization was now a collection of frightened outposts of inhabitation. Thus were [[Specific installation:Rainbow station|Rainbow station]] and its infant fleet of resource gatherers nearly orphaned, the mother planet an invalid. With the station barely able to sustain itself, the stationers were left with the unenviable role of deciding whom amongst [[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]]'s survivors they could afford to save.
-As the [[History and Timeline:Diamond Dust Age|Diamond Dust Age]] progressed, and Bantam continued to wither away to a pale shadow of its brief heyday, Rainbow station endured, growing throughout the period of isolation, if at a glacial pace. Warning messages, lazily arriving at the [[Terminology:Lightspeed|speed of light]] from their neighbors, came in one after the other, followed sometimes by descriptions of chaos, and sometimes by silence. There was no official expectation of assistance, but humans are renowned for their counter-empirical optimism.
+As the [[History and Timeline:Diamond Dust Age|Diamond Dust Age]] progressed, and [[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]] continued to wither away to a pale shadow of its brief heyday, [[Specific installation:Rainbow station|Rainbow station]] endured, growing throughout the period of isolation, if at a glacial pace. Warning messages, lazily arriving at the [[Terminology:Lightspeed|speed of light]] from their neighbors, came in one after the other, followed sometimes by descriptions of chaos, and sometimes by silence. There was no official expectation of assistance, but humans are renowned for their counter-empirical optimism.
-Thus, it was with great surprise and anticipation that the arrival of the first FTL ship was greeted, and numbing disappointment the feeling that swept the stationers when they learned that it was not a portend of any mission of mercy. All, however, did not look grim. The visitors were [[Faction:Highborn|High-Born]] explorers, but from a family of lower standing. The Marcos family realized that they had much to gain from control of Rainbow station once it began producing [[Terminology:Jump|jump]] capable vessels. With FTL technology and the silent threat of a second abandonment for leverage, the Marcos family gained a large stake in Rainbow station.
+Thus, it was with great surprise and anticipation that the arrival of the first [[Terminology:FTL travel|FTL]] ship was greeted, and numbing disappointment the feeling that swept the stationers when they learned that it was not a portend of any mission of mercy. All, however, did not look grim. The visitors were [[Faction:Highborn|High-Born]] explorers, but from a family of lower standing. The Marcos family realized that they had much to gain from control of [[Specific installation:Rainbow station|Rainbow station]] once it began producing [[Terminology:Jump|jump]] capable vessels. With [[Terminology:FTL travel|FTL technology]] and the silent threat of a second abandonment for leverage, the Marcos family gained a large stake in [[Specific installation:Rainbow station|Rainbow station]].
-Luck had indeed changed for the better for the people of Bantam and Rainbow. Not only were much needed resources flowing in from High-Born space, payments for an ever increasing list of ship construction orders, but Rainbow soon proved itself to occupy a prime location in the jump network, a hub on what would remain for many decades the only practical routes connecting several populous systems to each other – including Sol.
+Luck had indeed changed for the better for the people of [[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]] and [[Specific installation:Rainbow station|Rainbow]]. Not only were much needed resources flowing in from High-Born space, payments for an ever increasing list of ship construction orders, but [[Specific installation:Rainbow station|Rainbow]] soon proved itself to occupy a prime location in the jump network, a hub on what would remain for many decades the only practical routes connecting several populous systems to each other – including Sol.
-Some colonies had fallen far and some had not had far to fall. The lone merchant was a valuable target in a starved land. Neither were the financial benefits of collusion upon profit margins lost upon the increasing number of traders operating out of or, less commonly at the time, passing through Rainbow. The first of the great mercantile cartels was formed, again under the leadership of the Marcos clan, a silent, nameless cartel that worked to establish a near monopoly on interstellar trade in much of human space during the Reconstruction period. Coercion, cooption, and even the occasional assassination were all valid tools to grow the blossoming financial empire centered on Rainbow and the slowly awakening Bantam. The Rainbow station cartel was one of a few groups to capitalize upon the realization that, in the absence of any overarching authorities, whomsoever dominated the trade lanes now could well be able to do so for centuries to come, barring fantastic advances in [[Terminology:Interstellar Travel|interstellar travel]].
+Some colonies had fallen far and some had not had far to fall. The lone merchant was a valuable target in a starved land. Neither were the financial benefits of collusion upon profit margins lost upon the increasing number of traders operating out of or, less commonly at the time, passing through [[Specific installation:Rainbow station|Rainbow]]. The first of the great mercantile cartels was formed, again under the leadership of the Marcos clan, a silent, nameless cartel that worked to establish a near monopoly on interstellar trade in much of human space during the Reconstruction period. Coercion, cooption, and even the occasional assassination were all valid tools to grow the blossoming financial empire centered on [[Specific installation:Rainbow station|Rainbow]] and the slowly awakening [[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]]. The [[Specific installation:Rainbow station|Rainbow station]] cartel was one of a few groups to capitalize upon the realization that, in the absence of any overarching authorities, whomsoever dominated the trade lanes now could well be able to do so for centuries to come, barring fantastic advances in [[Terminology:Interstellar Travel|interstellar travel]].
-Generations passed. Competitors fell as they came, though some struggled valiantly, and only the governments of the larger meme-groups were sufficiently imposing to hold their own at the bargaining tables. Shares of control of Rainbow station changed hands, and it became wholly an instrument of the cartel, although Bantam and Stationer descendants still held a plurality of control of the cartel, a sizeable majority if one included the increasingly integrated Marcos clan. The name of the station changed then as well, and the cartel gained a name, rechristened [[Specific installation:Cherryh station|Cherryh station]] and the [[Terminology:Cherryh Mercantile Trust|Cherryh Mercantile Trust]] (CMT), respectively.
+Generations passed. Competitors fell as they came, though some struggled valiantly, and only the governments of the larger meme-groups were sufficiently imposing to hold their own at the bargaining tables. Shares of control of [[Specific installation:Rainbow station|Rainbow station]] changed hands, and it became wholly an instrument of the cartel, although [[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]] and Stationer descendants still held a plurality of control of the cartel, a sizeable majority if one included the increasingly integrated Marcos clan. The name of the station changed then as well, and the cartel gained a name, rechristened [[Specific installation:Cherryh station|Cherryh station]] and the [[Terminology:Cherryh Mercantile Trust|Cherryh Mercantile Trust]] (CMT), respectively.
 Though flagrantly in bed with High-Born interests, the CMT maintained a resolute official neutrality, even going so far as to make a point of hiring other parties for anti-piracy protection rather than building their own combat fleets. While many at the time took this to be a purely political maneuver, those more informed knew that it was actually a necessity. [[Specific installation:Cherryh station|Cherryh station]] had been a vital trump card for the CMT in the early portions of the Reconstruction period, but mankind had recovered somewhat, and was once more advancing, and the age of the station was beginning to show. Bulk freighters are in many ways much easier to build than the tiny craft that protect them and avoid obsolescence much longer, and [[Specific installation:Cherryh station|Cherryh station]] was only up to the task of constructing the first, and not the latter.
-More modern shipyards, though not on the scale of the CMT's aging beauty, were being constructed all over, and the competitive advantage the CMT had enjoyed due to their production capacity was waning. There was, however, little feared by the CMT at this point, as there was no longer any competition of note to gain upon them. All other transport of goods was in-system, governmental, or doomed to obscurity or absorption. The CMT used this time to increase its wealth, strengthen and modernize its infrastructure, and deepen its influence on various governments. The resettlement of Bantam was in full swing.
+More modern shipyards, though not on the scale of the CMT's aging beauty, were being constructed all over, and the competitive advantage the CMT had enjoyed due to their production capacity was waning. There was, however, little feared by the CMT at this point, as there was no longer any competition of note to gain upon them. All other transport of goods was in-system, governmental, or doomed to obscurity or absorption. The CMT used this time to increase its wealth, strengthen and modernize its infrastructure, and deepen its influence on various governments. The resettlement of [[Terminology:Bantam|Bantam]] was in full swing.
-The CMT's opportunity to rest did not last as long as they would have preferred. The development of the [[Terminology:SPEC (-drive)|SPEC drive]] dramatically changed the landscape of trade routes, altered latencies, and made runs by smaller vessels much more practical. Rapidly expanding borders made for new regions for local competitors to exploit more rapidly than the CMT might be able to react. However, like the age itself, the CMT had matured. There would be no massive wave of assassinations or stream of engineered third-party blockades. Rather, there would be the ultimate buy-out – the largest recruitment effort ever mounted, a clarion call summoning all traders to a common banner with the offer of common profits. What could have been the death knell for the CMT merely announced the birth of the Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild, which if it still had the CMT at its core, was, by the nature of its creation, intended to be a beast with a very different public face.
+The CMT's opportunity to rest did not last as long as they would have preferred. The development of the [[Terminology:SPEC (-drive)|SPEC drive]] dramatically changed the landscape of trade routes, altered latencies, and made runs by smaller vessels much more practical. Rapidly expanding borders made for new regions for local competitors to exploit more rapidly than the CMT might be able to react. However, like the age itself, the CMT had matured. There would be no massive wave of assassinations or stream of engineered third-party blockades. Rather, there would be the ultimate buy-out – the largest recruitment effort ever mounted, a clarion call summoning all traders to a common banner with the offer of common profits. What could have been the death knell for the CMT merely announced the birth of the [[Faction:Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild|Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild]], which if it still had the CMT at its core, was, by the nature of its creation, intended to be a beast with a very different public face.
 The emergence of the [[Faction:Confederation of Inhabited Worlds|Confederation]] only served to strengthen the position of the Guild, being included in the Confederation Senate's Committees despite technically only owning a single star system (the plethora of commerce stations and trading outposts in the star systems of other powers not counting as seats of population)  – an important technicality, as it would otherwise be difficult to pretend they were a governmental entity in the same sense as the other Senate members. The newly formed Confederation Navy and [[Faction:Homeland security|Homeland Security]] forces served to decrease piracy along standard trade routes, even if the decline of several independent powers in the face of enforcing new Confederation regulations gave rise to a whole new breed of paramilitary forces.  While in matters internal to the Confederation the Guild was still maintaining an increasingly less fictitious neutrality on matters not of self-interest, there was no love lost between the [[Faction:Forsaken|Forsaken]] and the Guild, the much lower profit margins available on return trips never having enticed much Guild investment, and Guild price fixing long having raised the ire of the Forsaken. Guild presence in Forsaken space is thus limited to border stations, much like the trade relations with the [[Faction:Uln|Uln]] and [[Faction:Rlaan|Rlaan]].