The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

Chapter 2130 The Beginning and End of the Trade Alliance (I)

2131. The Beginning and End of the Trade Alliance (I)

In today's Milky Way, the Trade Federation gives people the impression of being overbearing, greedy, ruthless, and corrupt. However, few people know that when the Trade Federation was formally established about 350 years ago, this organization was considered a model organization in the Galactic Republic at that time.

It can be said that without the Trade Alliance, there would be no Galactic Republic's rule over the outer ring regions of the Milky Way - although this rule has always been very weak.

Therefore, only by understanding from this perspective can we understand why, from the Galactic Republic to the present Galactic Empire, the Trade Federation has been tolerated to bet on both sides of the war, but has never completely eliminated them.

The reason is simple. They have a lot of support in parliament.

350 years ago, with the further expansion of hyperspace routes, the Galactic Republic ushered in a golden age of great exploration. Many outer ring star regions were discovered and joined the big family of the Galactic Republic. These newly discovered star regions are called expansion star regions, covering at least one-third of the outer ring star regions and a small part of the middle ring star regions, which is extremely vast.

In this process, a large number of conflicts and contradictions inevitably arise. Different species have different interests, and various disputes arise among major chambers of commerce and companies.

And because most of the disputes occurred in the expansion area, the law was useless here. 350 years ago, the Republic did not have a strong standing fleet, only the judicial fleet, and the judicial fleet was generally not deployed.

At that time, the Galactic Republic was still in its last glory. In addition to the Judicial Fleet, they often relied on the Jedi Knights to resolve disputes. But would the Jedi Knights travel all the way to the Outer Rim to resolve a situation where your company owed another consortium 10 credit points but refused to pay it back?

Obviously not.

Therefore, the expansion star region at that time was basically a lawless area. Fights were just trivial, and gun fights were common. There were often exchanges of fire between fleets. Both sides were armed cargo ships with thin skins and large fillings, so naturally they would suffer heavy losses if they fought.

In the process of such struggle, super companies such as Pulsar Supertanker, Quasar Cargo, Red Star Shipping Lines, and Ororo Transportation were born. These companies are the overlords of the expansion of the star field, and no one dares to provoke them.

If you look at the names, you will find that these are all logistics and transportation companies. Why are they shipping companies instead of industrial giants, financial giants, or business tycoons?

Because what was the most important thing in the expansion of the star field at that time? Navigation data! Without navigation data, you have no idea how to get to those newly discovered star systems, and it is easy to get lost in the hyperspace turbulence and never come back. So these logistics and shipping companies began to monopolize the navigation data of the outer ring expansion star field. All companies and individuals doing business in the outer ring star region must spend a high price to rent navigation instruments from these companies, so as to get the accurate coordinates to other star systems. So these shipping companies can make huge profits without leaving their homes.

Such a deformed monopoly naturally caused great resistance. Many races, small companies and small groups united to form an organization to fight against those large shipping companies. This was the prototype of the trade alliance.

The Trade Union was originally open-minded, efficient, fair, open, and honest. They elected their own governors and then coordinated the shipping of all the affiliated planets, races, and companies. When those shipping companies refused to disclose navigation data, the Trade Union organized its own exploration team, explored step by step, and then made the exploration results public to every member and to the official Galactic Republic.

At the same time, in order to facilitate the maintenance of unified standards, the Trade Union and Hoersch-Kessel Drive Inc., one of the large shipyards at the time, placed an order to develop a large cargo ship with a simple structure, large carrying capacity, and sufficient self-protection capabilities.

So this is the LH-3210 cargo ship, the famous donut, Rookery Hooker class.

In addition, they also placed a concentrated order for an escort fleet consisting of Captor-class heavy munitions cruisers and Munifex-class light cruisers nicknamed Class 1000 cruisers.

Powerful cargo ships and excellent escort fleets protect the safety of shipping between various star systems. Under the protection of the Trade Union's escort fleet, the probability of merchant fleets being plundered by pirates has dropped to less than one percent. For the expansion of star regions that are beyond the reach of the laws of the Galactic Republic, this is simply heaven.

With constant efforts and joint struggle, the Trade Alliance defeated and annexed those arrogant shipping companies one by one, becoming an important presence in the Outer Rim. Even super industrial giants such as Kuat Power Dockyard, in order to protect their own interests in the Outer Rim, took the opportunity to cooperate with the Trade Alliance in producing Predator-class armed freighters and joined the Trade Alliance as their peripheral members.

After defeating all competitors, the Trade Federation became the actual controller of the Expansion Star Region and most of the Outer Rim Star Region. They are responsible for trade and shipping between all star systems, resolving disputes for major races, and unifying industry pricing to avoid malicious competition.

At the same time, the Trade Federation made the Outer Rim navigation data public for the Galactic Republic, allowing the Galactic Republic's forces to enter the Outer Rim, which made them famous.

After the Trade Federation became a terrifying behemoth, some people expressed concerns that if the Trade Federation continued to grow, they would become a powerful force strong enough to challenge the Galactic Republic, and once proposed to expel the Trade Federation from the Outer Rim Star Region.

But the answer they got was - "Expel the Trade Federation? Do you know that if the Trade Federation is not there, there won't even be laws there?"

  This is a summary of the power of the Trade Union, and also an affirmation of their positive image. The Trade Union, which controls unparalleled power and wealth, is a super monopoly giant second only to the Interstellar Banking Association in the Milky Way at that time! It can't even be said that this is an intergalactic cartel, they are directly a galactic-level super cartel!

But power and wealth are hotbeds of corruption, and this applies to any place and any era. The Trade Alliance, which once brought order and stability to the expansion of the star field, is no exception.