RE: Texaco Free Trade Zone (LONG) Re: [GZG-ECC and GZGPedia] I Need Your Help!

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
[mailto:owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU]On Behalf Of devans@uneb.edu
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 14:14
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Texaco Free Trade Zone (LONG) Re: [GZG-ECC and GZGPedia] I Need
Your Help!

[snip]

A couple of things I'd like some help with, if the list will pardon me.

One thing that's been rolling around in my head is that the corporate
history is more parallel than part of the nations' history. You can put
both on the same timeline, and I'd expect interaction, but want the ebb
and
flow of the corporations to not be directly tied to those of the various
nations as the coporations are, indeed, international. Ok, a citizen of
Phezzan at heart.

I believe I mentioned this before, but had hopes this might manifest
itself
as work on such a separate history. One thing that my Texaco group of
losers, er, restructered corporationists needs is a point at which a
huge
conflagration occurred outside of the histories of the nations. A real
corporate war, if you will.

In the end, the losers are disbanded, absorbed into the winners, or in a
few cases, scurry away to hidden exploratory outposts, and the power of
corporations to conduct such real wars to be greatly controlled by the
nations through the auspices of the UN.

[Bri] In your vision, do you see a bunch of companies in the end or just
a
few. If a few have they "divided the market" into areas where they
dominate
(read near monopoly)? The future that I see is one of a great number of
companies. Most of these are local "niche" players, but a few are on the
power level of nations. My ITTT
(http://members.xoom.com/rlyehable/gzg/ittt.html) is one of these. It
competes with free traders, but has a great advantage in that it is
willing
to service new colonies. This is unprofitable for most companies, but
ITTT
makes a profit by contracting for exclusive rights for 99 years. This
allows
the small colony to grow into a sizeable one that will turn a profit for
ITTT. It also makes a habit of not gouging its customers, so most
colonies
continue to do business with ITTT even after the 99 year contract is
completed and they may use other transport companies. However, it still
has
to deal with competitors in the larger markets.

Points I need help on:

What does the pre-Corp War Texaco trade in? I want a fuel to be the
center
of it's business. H2? Tritrium? I'd prefer a heavy isotope of H2; the
hidden territory could be a tritium(quadrium?) rich region. Gives my
converted tankers a reason for being.

[Bri] It could be deuterium, but that may be less expensive to
manufacture
that gather in space (I saw an article once about using geothermal vents
to
produce/extract deuterium). I don't know the half-life of heaver
isotopes of
Hydrogen, but would suggest that if they were necessary for FTL travel,
that
FTL travel would be so expensive that it would be like moon travel today
(ie. possible, but nonexistent). However, it may be easier to purify it
in
space (that is get rid of the standard hydrogen) and keep it in a liquid
form. I do like the idea of using deuterium for fusion reaction,
however. If
a ship runs out of reaction mass, it can "scoop" some hydrogen from a
local
gas giant. True, it won't work as well as deuterium, but will work in a
pinch. We just need to find a way to justify the expense.

When does the big breakup take place? Is there something in the regular
history that might suggest expected side effects?

[Bri] I see several possibilities. One "land grab" for corporations
would
start in 2049 with the collapse of the US economy. However, this is
before
the Stellar Age (my term). Another opportunity begins in 2062/2063 with
the
revelation of FTL travel and the resulting columniations. Again, an
opportunity exists around 2101 with the break up of the UFE. Again, 2137
brings the 1st Solar War, the 2nd Solar War in 2145 presents the
disruption
necessary as does the 3rd solar war in 2166.

Where does the breakup start? Something I had in mind would be a 'trade
world' system, where several large corps had vast corporate parks where
the
boundaries were fairly active with industrial espionage and the like. A
few
of the security forces get a little trigger happy...

[Bri] I would suggest ~2174 as the original colonies get out from under
ITTT
contract for shipping. Or on "corporate worlds" grabbed by the various
corporations to avoid the nasty environmental regulations and tax burden
(could be any time after 2074).

Where might the hidden TFTZ actually lie? Outside the nationally
boundaries, and out of the main path of the Kra'Vak or any other aliens.
Those boys would make swiss cheese of the TFNS ships. ;->=

[Bri] The Free Trade Zone may have been a reaction to heavy
taxation/tariffs
by government and to avoid ITTT charges when shipping between
corporations.
Then someone got greedy and tried a "hostile takeover" of another
corporation.

The_Beast
-----End Original Message-----

Comments marked by [Bri]

I have thought about reducing the "exclusive" clause for ITTT to 50
years,
but remain unconvinced that a colony would become profitable in that
amount
of time.

---
Brian Bell
bkb@beol.net <mailto:bkb@beol.net>
http://members.xoom.com/rlyehable/ft/
ICQ: 12848051
AIM: Rlyehable
---