The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge

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

In the current galaxy, the Trade Federation gives people the impression of being overbearing, greedy, cruel, and corrupt. However, few people know that when the Trade Federation was officially established about 350 years ago, this organization was a model organization in the Galactic Republic at that time.

And it can be said that without the Trade Federation, there would be no Galactic Republic's rule over the Outer Rim Star Region of the Milky Way - although this rule has always been very weak.

Therefore, from this perspective, we can understand why the Galactic Republic has tolerated the Trade Federation betting on both sides of the war from the beginning of the Galactic Republic to the present, but has never completely solved them.

The reason is very simple, they really have a lot of support in the 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 current outer ring star regions and a small part of the middle ring star regions, and the scope is extremely vast.

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

And because most of the places where disputes occur are in the expansion area, the law is 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 dispatched.

At that time, the Galactic Republic was still in its last glorious period. In addition to the judicial fleet, they often relied on the Jedi Knights to resolve disputes. But will the Jedi Knights travel thousands of miles to the Outer Ring Star Region to resolve the problem that your company owes 100,000 credit points to other consortiums but refuses to pay it back?

Obviously not.

So at that time, the expansion star region was basically full of lawless areas, fighting was just a trivial matter, and gun fights were only common in normal times, and there would often be exchanges of fire between fleets. Both sides were armed cargo ships with thin skin and large fillings, so they would naturally 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 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, and business tycoons?

Because what is the most important thing in the expansion star field at that time? Navigation data! Without navigation data, you don’t know how to get to those newly discovered galaxies, 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 area must spend a high price to rent navigation instruments from these companies, so as to get the accurate coordinates to other galaxies. So these shipping companies can make huge profits without leaving home.

Such a deformed monopoly naturally generated great resistance. Many races, small companies and small groups united to form an organization to fight against those large shipping companies, and this was the prototype of the Trade Union.

The original Trade Union was open-minded, efficient, fair, open and honest. They launched their own governors through elections, and then coordinated the transportation and shipping of all the affiliated planets, races and companies. Those shipping companies refused to disclose navigation data, so the Trade Union organized its own exploration team, explored step by step, and then made the exploration results public to every member, and also 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 transportation capacity and sufficient self-protection capabilities.

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

In addition, they also ordered a fleet of escort ships 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 star regions that are not covered by the laws of the Galactic Republic, this is simply heaven.

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

After defeating all competitors, the Trade Union became the actual controller of the expansion star field and most of the Outer Rim Star Region. They are responsible for trade and shipping between all galaxies, resolve disputes for major races, and unify industry pricing to avoid malicious competition.

At the same time, because the Trade Union disclosed the navigation data of the Outer Rim Star Region to the Galactic Republic, it also allowed the power of the Galactic Republic to enter the Outer Rim Star Region, which made them famous.

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

But the answer they got was - "Expel the Trade Union? Do you know that if the Trade Union is not there, there will be no law there?"

This is a summary of the power of the Trade Union, and it is 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, this sentence applies to any place and any era. The Trade Union, which once brought order and stability to the expansion of the star field, is naturally no exception.