Terran Trading[]
Terra and Terran worlds engage in trade, as do also the Liaden Worlds. At the time of Jethri in the novel Balance of Trade, Terran traders were the poor orphaned cousins to the much more powerful Liaden traders. Over the centuries, this has changed somewhat, thanks in part to Clan Ixin. See Timeline.
Today, the Terran Trade Commission is located on VanDyke. TerraTrade certifies ports. They publish TerraTrade manuals that describe each port and its rating.
There is also mention of the Federated Trade Commission, FTC. Info needed?
TerraTrade Certification[]
Currently, Terran trading is known across the galaxy, and TerraTrade has the authority to certify ports on Terran worlds. TerraTrade accredits or certifies ports and then publishes their trading status in their widely-used TerraTrade Manuals. TerraTrade Rating Board members examine the recommendations of the accreditation team, who tour the port, interview the portmaster and other relevant persons and groups, and specifically critique the services, suitability, and safety of the port and planet. TerraTrade then assigns a rating, consulting with the Chairman of the Board if needed:
- Unsafe Port: “Do Not Stop” /DNS - ports issued a DNS Notice are marked by extreme political upheaval, lawlessness, pandemic plague/illness, and/or mechanical disrepair. Some ports on worlds and stations like Eylot / Cordrescu Station and Surebleak were threatened with this status, for various reasons. A “Do Not Stop” seriously hinders free trade and health net outreach
- Local Port: Limited Services
- Regional Port: All Services
- Sector Port: All Services (often the home port of a master trader)
Trade Stations[]
Partial list of trading stations in Terran space:
- Cordrescu Orbital Trading Station- station near the planet Eylot, which was one of the Liaden Worlds until recently, when Terrans began to take control (see Landed Alien etc)
- Tradedesk station -- “an intermediate orbital market called Tradedesk — Bechimo’s third stop on the loop.”[1] Space station, a regional hub for for Spwao System in Terran space. A Trade Center space station orbiting Vincza, and also serving Chustling. Connects to five other systems by direct Jumplink. Built in the 12th century, with input from the Carresens and possibly Combine Commissioner Arin Tomas/Gobelyn. Jethri attended a conference there in SY 1119, when construction was not yet finished. [2] Bechimo docked there in circa SY 1394 so Theo could discuss market research with Janifer Carresens-Denobli.[3]
- Carresens-Denobli Group also keep Hacienda Estrella, a small way station at Edmonton Beacon. It’s not for trading, but rather to tend their own ships and crew. Pilots refresh at Safe Dock Bar[5]
- former Tinsori Light — trading to be offered by Clan Korval’s Tree & Dragon Trading
- Port Chavvy — a Terran trading space station orbiting Chavvy
- Yonimiko-Chan -- a space station, big hub. Kamele Waitley's ship Hoselteen docked here, so she jumped ship to elude probable agents of The Department of the Interior[6]
- etc, etc. (see Planets for list of stations, planets, moons, systems)
Station Hours[]
According to Tocohl Lorlin, who cross-referenced TerraTrade Station Protocols with Tradedesk standards, and with the Liaden Trade Council, the daily work shifts on a Core space station should be thus: “twenty-four seventy-two-minute hours, broken into four shifts. First shift from oh to six; second from six to twelve; third from twelve to eighteen; fourth from eighteen to twenty-four.” [7]
Trading Cartels[]
Some known names in Terran trade:
- The Carresens-Denobli Trading Syndicate are a wide spread well known syndicate, a merged family. They build ships at Margate Yard, run trading loops, host a trading Festivayla, maintain a small space station dubbed Hacienda Estrella at Edmonton Beacon, and dabble in smart ships like Disian.
“One of the oldest and most successful Terran syndicates” [8]
- Hugglelans Galactica trading group is/ was a respected family trading business under the “Grandfather’s” oversight. However, lately it has been using questionable tactics to get ahead in the game, including exploiting vulnerable planets and stations, filing false complaints against ships, etc.
Janifer Carresens-Denobli has also noticed a sad change in the company’s business ethics.[10] Likewise, Theo Waitley and the crew of Bechimo experienced Hugglelans shady ethics firsthand at Minot Station. She once worked for a much more honorable Hugglelans.[11]“Hugglelans had been noted targeting the chains that supplied various Korval, and Korval-affiliated, yards, bases, and repair stations." [9]
- Lomar Fasholt and Daughters — her trading family has been trading profitably for decades, but see Songs of the Fathers in From Every Storm
- Clan Korval‘s Tree & Dragon tradeships attempt to make inroads into Terran trade.
- Trader Padi yos'Galan and Trader Vanz Carresens-Denobli have recently begun a small trading venture dubbed “Out of the Dust Limited Partnership” (Trader’s Leap, Ribbon Dance)
- In the Liaden-Terran planets recently emerging from Rostov's Dust, including The Redlands system, trade went on via various means. One such is the Iverson Loop, of whom Trader Isfelm and the Isfelm Trade Union is a principal. Various traders in the Dust are mentioned: the Iverson Loop, the Evrits, the Mikancy Family (Ribbon Dance)
Historically[]
Specific individuals, organizations, and families have done much to develop and promote Terran trading over the centuries. For too long, Liad had the advantage over Terra in galactic trading:
- "Relations between Liad and Terra have never been cordial, though there have been periods of lesser and greater strain. Liad prefers to thrash Terra roundly in the field of galactic trade —a terrain it shaped —from The Struggle for Fair Trade [12]
- "There are several million Traders in the galaxy, but only 300 Master Traders registered with the Trade Commission on VanDyk. Until recently, all 300 were Liaden. This has been changing slowly, as Terrans become more successful in the trade arena and able to afford the costly and extensive certification tests."[13]
Arin Gobelyn - (a Terran related to The Uncle) wrote Arin’s Envidaria, concerned with free-trade with planets becoming enveloped in Rostov's Dust
- "known for Arin’s Envidaria, as instituted for the Seventeen Worlds by Arin Gobelyn’s son Jethri Gobelyn and overseen by the Carrassens-Denobli, established an egalitarian trade network meant to be self-supporting during the disruptive incursion of Rostov’s Dust into the lesser galactic sub-arm. —From Gehrling’s Middle History of the Inhabited Galactic Sub-Plane, Third Terran edition [14]
Jethri Gobelyn — supported by Liaden Master Trader Norn venDeelin Clan Ixin, also made a difference for Terran trading:
- a peripatetic traveler and trader, he left his mark in many ways; his genes are said to be widely dispersed in and around the Seventeen World trading nexus. —From Gehrling’s Middle History of the Inhabited Galactic Sub-Plane, Third Terran edition [15]