Mercantile League
THE FOUNDATION OF THE MERCANTILE LEAGUE
The origins of the Mercantile League of Planets are bound up in the Exodus period of human colonization of the galaxy (c. 2065-2190). The early phase of Mankind's settlement of worlds beyond the Solarian StarSystem was not the happiest period in the races history. What might have been a glorious era in humanity's evolution was made morbid and cruel by the oppressive policies of the infamous Pure Earth movement on Terra.
The first interstellar colonies were established by the United Planets government of Terra as little more than 'Botany Bay' penal settlements. The OutWorlds were used as places of exile for social and political undesirables whom the Pure Earth regime felt were expendable or even enemies of their misguided plan to create a paradise on Terra. The transportees were driven like slaves to produce food and raw materials for the insatiable, ever-growing billions of Terra. Their rights and freedoms as sentient beings were denied. Even the safety of the colonists was utterly ignored; production and more production was all that counted.
The free colonists of the Terran L-5 colonies, Luna, Mars, and the other Home Worlds were gradually but inexorably reduced to the same level as the transportees. The Pure Earthian colonial administrators ground everyone down equally with spiralling taxes. Impossible production quotas were imposed, with savage penalties for failure to meet those quotas. Ridiculously low prices were paid for colonial products, while correspondingly exorbitant prices were charged for imported manufactured goods from Terra. Since imports were generally vital items needed for the very survival of the colonies, the bitterness of the colonials could only reach explosive levels. Philosophically unable to admit the importance of space travel and the OutWorlds, the Pure Earth regime on Terra finally made a fatal error. The responsibility for construction and manning of the spacecraft linking Terra and the Outworlds was placed in the hands of the L-5 colonists.
In 2136, the Solarian OutPlanets revolted against Terran tyranny and established the High Republic. In their contempt for all things not of the Earth, the Pure Earthian fanatics had allowed Terran space technology and production capacity to lapse, leaving such 'frivolous' matters to the L-5 colonies. Thus Terra found itself unable to enforce its will beyond the atmosphere when the revolt occurred. Rather than rising to the challenge, the Pure Earthers abandoned space entirely. It was argued that development of an armed Space Force would bleed Terra of vital resources and production needed to support its burdgeoning population (For a detailed treatment of this period of Terran history, refer to the 'SocioTechnic History of the United Federation of Planets' by Tal Maleena, Ac.Em., summarized in StarSector Atlas 1).
Though the insane policies of the Pure Earth government denied direct access to space, Terra was far from cut off from the OutWorlds until much later. Trade had to continue with the OutWorlds if Terra was to survive at all. In the decades after 2136, many Terrans were also able to emigrate to the stars. The Pure Earth regime did not discourage the practice at first, as the OutWorlds were attracting the most troublesome elements in the developed regions of North America, Japan, WestEurope, and the SovWorld. Resentment against Pure Earth policies was deepest in these regions, upon which the greatest sacrifices had been imposed to support the exploding populations in the less developed areas.
Many intelligent and skilled Terrans saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall and fled Terra before its entire socioeconomic structure collapsed in 2175. As one North American immigrant quipped upon landing at Tycho City, Luna, 'Just another bunch of rats off the sinking ship, chums!' These immigrants were to form the mass of the coloniale scattering across a volume of space over 1500 light-years across. There were colonies in the Deneb Cluster by 2088, forming the nucleus of the Azuriach Imperium. Immigrants from the SovWorld headed for colonies in NCG 1039, the future heart of the Galactic Peoples' Republic. Many from North America, Britain, and the old Commonwealth, and Japan, settled either in the High Republic or one of its OutWorld colonies.
But there were also a number of latecomers who arrived in the final years of the Pure Earthian debacle. They were perhaps the most rootless of all. For they knew only the hated culture of Pure Earthian Terra. Their historic cultural roots had been vigorously suppressed by the Pure Earth regime as it struggled desperately to impose regimented uniformity on scores of billions during the last 40 years of its existence. Rejecting everything they knew of life on earth, these new colonials were unable to adjust to the lite-styles of the High Republic and the other colonial groupings. For these cultures were simply ton alien for people brought up on latter day Pure Earthist Terra. Indeed, many found themselves reacting little tees hostilely to their new environments than they did towards the mindless conformism and regimentation of life on Terra.
Many of the colonists were highly intelligent specialists- -scientists, engineers, and skilled technocrats- - who had been forbidden to emigrate because they were essential to Terra's failing industries, hydroponic farms, and transportation net. Courageously escaping atone or with their families on ships of the High Republic, they longed for the freedom to turn their skills to personal profit. These young men and women were prime candidates for the new and massive colonizing projects being planned by the entrepeneurs of the OutWorlds to open up the planets of the Antares StarSector.
The economic potential of the OutWorlds was obvious to anyone with imagination and intl4gence. Blocs of companies and wealthy entrepeneurs pooled their resources to colonize new worlds, sometimes charging stiff settlement premiums to immigrants seeking a better life. Others with still more imagination acted to establish extensive mining, agricultural, and manufacturing complexes on worlds rich in natural resources and fertile soils to provide the products so urgently needed on Terra. Thus began the Mercantilist Dispersion (2140-2190).
The first Mercantilist expedition to the Antares OutWorlds was launched by a conglomerate of 11 companies in 2140. It was the first of a series of superbly planned, financed, and equipped private commercial ventures on a major scale. Almost 700,000 colonists were transported in nine waves to establish a completely self-sustaining colony on the worlds of the Augusta system in the Antares sector. The backers of the project selected the majority of the colonists from the latest exiles from Terra. These were engaged as employees of the founding corporations. The exiles had great difficulty adjusting to the largely unregulated life of the High Republic and, while loathing totalitarian government, they found the disciplined life of vibrant corporations congenial and promising.
The corporations found that, with proper treatment, their new employees transferred intense loyalty to their employers. To the last man and woman, the exiles from Terra hated all 'statist' governments that fenced in people with a treacherous morale of unending laws, regulations, and taxes, the whole administered by self-important bureaucrate who delighted in mountains of red tape. They simply wanted to gel on with the job, unfettered by authority. Since their desire for freedom to work and prosper exactly suited the aims of the entrepeneurs, the Terran exiles were prime candidates for the Antares colonies.
The Free Colonies prospered. The products of the finest minds in human entrepeneurial circles, the colonies boasted operational mines and factoriel within ten years. A growing stream of food-stuffs, manufactured gonds, and raw resources moved from the Antares Worlds to Terra, the High Republic, and a number of the other colonial OutWorlds. In 2176, the first StarShip was launched by Tetragammetron Shipyards on Augusta, and the beginning of what would become a huge interstellar merchant fleet came to pals. By 2180, eleven worlds had been settled in the Antares sector, and almost eight million colonists had been attracted by the unlimited opportunities for advancement and profit.
The general collapse of Terran society by 2175 did not put a lasting brake on Free Colony markets and development. The worlds of the High Republic and more than a hundred known outworld colonies look up the slack. New races were also being discovered- - entire planets and groupings of planets full of potential customers. Often tees advanced than Humanity and eager to purchase high-technology goods, these worlds proved to be a rich source of profit.
During this period, Free Colony culture was drifting aimlessly, gripped by a series of Faddish Crazes which point out the true desperation with which the Free Colonists were attempting to find some unique identity as a people and as a nation. This urge finally found expression in the Neo-Romanism which now pervades Mercantile civilization.
It was inevitable that the Free Colonies would run afoul of the High Republic, the inheritor of Terran power after the disasters and upheavals that had collapsed Terran society. The Free Traders cut deeper and deeper into Republican markets in the star colonies. Career opportunities in the Free Colonies also produced a brain drain that quickly reached serious proportions in the somewhat less economically buoyant High Republic. By 2200, a sinister element gained power in the Republican government. Perverting the democratic ideals upon which the High Republic was founded, unscrupulous demagogues saw the opportunity to gain immense personal power by incorporating the far-flung star colonies into a grand Empire of Humanity. Their imperialist policies were finally turned around in the later part of the 23rd century by the emergence of Terran socio-technic morality, when that world again entered the mainstream of galactic life. But until the advent of the Covenanters, the High Republic exhibited a warlike imperialism perhaps surpassed only by the Azuriach Imperium, the Hissss'ist, and the Bugs.
Under the Imperial Party, the Galactic Union of the High Republic (often referred to as the Terran Union, though it bears little resemblance to the actual Union of later years) embarked on an ambitious course of economic and military expansion. Republican commercial interests bitterly resented the vigorous competition of the Free Traders. They pressed the imperialist regime to establish a mercantilist colonial system. Thus the leadership of the Terran Union evolved an unbalanced system of tariffs to favor Solarian products and to restrict trade in the colonies. These policies were enunciated in the infamous BluykherStans Initiative of 2193, and the much-hated Interstellar Trade Control Act was passed the following year.
The Trade Control Act of 2194 struck at the very survival of the Antarean Free Colonies. It imposed ruinously high import duties on all Free Trader goods landed on the Solarian OutPlanets and the colony worlds of the Terran Union. It required that all goods traded in Union space be carried in vessels of Solarian registry. Finally, to encourage colonial compliance, the Trade Control Act granted preferential tariffs and subsidized shipping rates to all colonies trading exclusively with the Solarian Worlds.
The response of the Free Colonies to this restriction of trade was to convene a Congress on Augusta II in 2195. Representatives from Augusta II, Rhodes 11, Traianus (Trajan V), Latium VI, Volcan (Scipio IV), Martius V, and Valarian V attended the conference. On September 5, 2195, the delegates declared the independence of the Antares OutWorlds from all statist regimes, resolving to defend their freedoms with their lives and fortunes against all tyrants and oppressors everywhere. The First Congress also drafted the famous Mercantile Articles of Trade and Commerce, the body of the laws and the Constitution by which the new League of Free Mercantile Planets would be governed. The Articles were then presented for general ratification by the sovereign citizens of the League in a plebiscite, passing with a 98.73% approval on December 11, 2195.
The leadership of the Terran Union were mildly amused by these proceedings. With a powerful BattleFleet and a dominion encompassing almost 125 colonies and growing, they saw little to fear from a tiny, if defiant, competitor like the League. But the League struck back in its own way. Free Traders entered into blatant smuggling operations in the colonies, expending funds to bribe corruptible customs officials to look the other way while contraband was landed by the shipload.
Johannes Bluykher, the chief architect of the Trade Control Act, became President of the High Republic of the Terran Union in 2198.
As his first act in office, he issued orders to the Union High Guard to fire upon all Mercantile vessels discovered in Union space. Their very presence was to be construed as evidence of criminal violation of the Trade Control Act. Running battles between League craft and High Guard patrol vessels began occurring with disturbing frequency.
It was at this point that friction between the League and the Union reached the explosive point. However, the League found that it did not have to move overtly because the Union and the Galactic Peoples' Republic suddenly and dramatically became engaged in the First Interstellar War (2198-2215). The G. P, R., founded in 2159 and comprising 27 colony worlds in NCG 1039, espoused an expansionist policy in keeping with its historical SovWorld roots on Terra. Thus it could not help but collide head-on with Union ambitions.
For its part, the League remained neutral for the first few years, content with massive smuggling activity throughout the Terran Union and trading strategic materials, armaments, and military equipment to the hard-pressed G. P. R. At the same time, the League embarked on a naval building program to upgun its best merchantmen so that they could function as armed merchant cruisers and commerce raiders. It also launched a small but powerful BattleFleet to defend the home planets in the Antares sector.
Bluykher and the Imperial Party were angered by League actions, and a full battlefleet was withdrawn from the G. P. R. campaign and dispatched toward the Antares worlds in 2205. Under the command of Fleet Admiral 'Bloody' John Vincent, the Union task force knifed into the League and conducted a campaign of punitive terror raids against outpost colonies and League protectorates unparalleled to that point in human spacefaring history. Altogether, some 16 League colony worlds and trading partners were devastated by Admiral Vincent's scorched planet tactics, with almost 9 billion casualties- - most suffered by friendly aliens whose only crime was that they traded with the League.
Outrage and fear reached crisis levels in the League, and total mobilization was ordered by the Congress. Individuals and corporations raised volunteer militia battalions at their own expense, and hundreds of merchant craft were released for long-range commerce raiding operations in Union space. While the small League BattleFleet struggled to slow down and contain the powerful Union armada, League privateersmen fell upon Union shipping with elan and ferocity. Union losses to the League privateering actions began to mount alarmingly, and owners and merchants began clamoring for escorts for their vessels. Then, on April 22, 2206, the League armed merchant cruiser LSS Blackstone's Folly dropped out of hyperspace at the fringe of the Solarian System itself to capture the 50,OOOt cruise ship Sirius Star!
It is perhaps ironic that an economic weapon was responsible for the survival of the League. The incredibly stupid decision on the part of the Union leadership to recall Admiral Vincent's task force when it was on the verge of destroying League power forever must stand as a great blunder in the annals of human military history. For it removed at a stroke the only real threat to the League. Dispersed as a fighting force to be employed piecemeal as convoy escorts, Vincent's fleet was denied its victory literally days before a decisive assault on Augusta itself was to begin.
The League itself was crippled by its losses and the damage to its factories and resource planets. Commerce raiding was curtailed after the recall of Vincent's fleet in order to avoid provoking the return of another punitive expedition. Just enough pressure was maintained to encourage the Union to continue its close escort policies instead of massing its power against the League. The smuggling continued unabated, as did material support of the embattled G.P.R.
Just as incredible, the G.P.R. survived repeated hammer blows against it by the superbly trained and equipped Union Forces as they ripped a swath across NCG 1039. Once again, Union politicians hamstrung their military command with ill-informed directives which repeatedly snatched away final victory from the grasp of the Union Guard. What should have been stunningly decisive battles were turned into savage, prolonged campaigns on over 20 worlds. Again, Union forces were dispersed and diverted to a multiplicity of objectives rather than being concentrated for massive local superiority.
As it was, the G. P. R. lost almost a quarter of its outlying colony worlds outside the NCG 1039 sector, and five of its major colonies in the StarCluster were solidly in Union control when the Bug Raid of 2215-2218 brought an abrupt end to the fratricidal insanity.
Lesser differences were set aside as the Terran Union, the G. P. R., and the League joined to repell the alien invasion of insectoids. Only much later was it discovered that the invasion was only an armed reconnaissance probe preparatory to the great Bug Raids of 2254-2269, 22812310, 2345-2360, and 2423-2450. The absence of support from the Deneb Worlds (the home of what would become the Azuriach Imperium) went unexplained for a time, despite repeated requests for aid against the avalanche of insectoids that had fallen upon the weakened interstellar nations of Humanity. Then it was learned that the humans of the Azuriach Cluster were themselves locked in mortal struggle with another wing of the Bug forces, which it finally repulsed with the assistance of one of the Rauwoof Republics also centered on the Deneb sector.
Exhausted by several decades of warfare, Humanity finally settled down to a period of peace and reconstruction. Then, in 2229, the Second Interstellar War broke out between the newly formed Azuriach Imperium and the G.P.R. The preferred point of contention was an insignificant lost colony which both claimed in StarSector 14.MM+600, but in reality it was an inevitable clash between mutually exclusive economic, political, and philosophical systems. Both the League and the Terran Union stayed out of the conflict, although League Free Traders carried on commerce with both combatants, without prejudice. The war ended in 2234, with a nominal Azuriach victory. The armed forces of that new interstellar nation surprised everyone with the quality of its arms and the excellence of its troops and tactics. Several years later, the Imperium attacked the Rauwoof Republic in the Deneb sector, claiming that the canines had betrayed humanity during the Bug Raid and deserved total extermination.
The Azuriach annihilation of the generally peaceful and friendly canines in the Deneb sector began the Third Interstellar War (2236-2255). The Third Interstellar War marks the beginning of the Imperial Period in the history of the Terran Quadrant. Over 20 major conflicts and innumerable skirmishes and frontier wars have been fought since that time. The Mercantile League managed to avoid direct involvement in many of the wars, growing and prospering in the process as it came to comprise almost 400 clients (trading partners and protectorates). Howver, its very dispersal across a vast volume of space has left the League vulnerable. Unlike many of its neighbors, the League has not been able to concentrate its strength outside of the Antares sector, and a good portion of its prosperity is dependent upon trade with the OutWorlds far beyond the League Home Planets.
Inexorably, the League has been drawn closer and closer into co-operation and alliance with the Terran Union and its successor, the Federation of Planets. With the fall of the imperialist regime in the First Union, and the rise of the Covenanters to establish the second Terran Union (2275), animosity between the two nations has lessened. The overwhelming naval and military power of the Union/Federation has, on several occasions, been essential to the preservation of the League's scattered possessions from its planet-hungry neighbors. Also, the 2000 planets which now comprise the Federation have too attractive a lure as markets, and the League is inevitably drifting toward close association with the Terrans. Skylar Curves predict that the current loose mutual defense pact will have a 93.8% probability of converting to full political union and the entrance of the League into the Federation within the century.
LEAGUE CULTURE: NEO-ROMANISM
Perhaps one of the truly unusual features of the League is its pre-occupation with the ancient Roman Empire of Terra. In their beginnings, the Free Colonies had a formless culture. Most of the Free Colonists had immigrated during the final years of the Pure Earth regime on Terra. Pure Earthian repression had all but stamped out many of the local sub-cultures on Terra. The Free Colonists had, in consequence, little knowledge of previous cultural traditions to replace the hated Pure Earthian values and lifestyles they so totally rejected. In effect, they were rootless and had little sense of a group identity.
The pressures of establishing self-sustaining colonies occupied the first generations so fully that they evolved little in the way of a working culture. Indeed, the culture of the Free Colonies went scarcely beyond the corporate structures of the companies that came to dominate daily life. The cultural vacuum led especially the young to seek some form of group self-expression beyond essentially work rotes.
In 2187, the first of the Faddish Cults arose. A musicon M. C. on a local Fabian TriVee station discovered a late 20th century Terran music form known as 'Rawk n' Rawling'. Airing several very old selections discovered in the colonial archives, he was startled to find that the youths in his audience identified totally with the primitive rhythms of the music. (Refer to 'Tribalism in the Free Colonies: A Treatise on the 'Rawk n' Rawler' Movement and Its Effects upon Cultural Evolution in the Mercantile League' by Acadamarian Gaius Rufinius Rogers, Encyclopedia Galactica, LC.117.V338.79a1. The Rawk Faddish swept through Fabius and quickly spread to other colonies, with youths affecting the outlandish dress and mannerisms of two centuries earlier. The Rawkers were soon challenged by a myriad of other Fadds, each more preposterous and extreme than the last. Perhaps the two most noticeable Fadds to emerge were Mob Faddish and WildWest Faddish, These two Fadds were quite suited to the needs of the corporations, then engaged in almost constant and often violent competition for markets and political dominance in the colonies.
Mob Faddish was first adopted by the Sampson Corporation in 2208 during its inter-corporate wars with Gamma Developments and Detron, Inc. Sampson personnel were organized into Big Wheels (management), Enforcers, Gunsels, Molls, and a host of other role-models based upon TriVee depictions of early 20th century history in Amerikan Terra. The Sampson Mob conducted such a stylish campaign of terror and intimidation against its competitors and their clients that Mob Faddish was soon adopted by marry other League corporations. Not to be outdone, Gamma Developments retaliated with WildWest Faddish. Reaching back to 19th century Terra, Gamma resurrected the costumes, accents, and traditions of the Amerikan West, all carefully researched from such historical documents as the antique TriVee records entitled High Noon, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. These superbly detailed documentaries, undoubtedly made under dangerous conditions by intrepid 19th century TriVee news teams, were no less useful than early 20th century documentaries like The Untouchables, Scarface, etc., were for the re-creation of Mob Faddish. Armed with automatic recoiless weapons cunningly disguised as early Terran Thompson machineguns, Sampson Mobsters regularly shot it out with Gamma Hired Guns packing Peacemaker Hoglegs (machine pistols) and autofire Winchester carbines- - much to the delight of millions of TriVee viewers who eagerly gathered before their 150cm screens each night to watch the newscasts.
This began the Camp Faddish, so called because it was devoted to following the corporate war campaigns, or Camps for short. By 2236, the corporations had learned that there was big money in the Camp Faddish, and they co-operated even in the middle of bitter corporate struggles to jointly produce elaborate TriVee coverage of the battles. This greatly boosted their sales in the process because of the spot commercials slipped in between action sequences, When TriVee directors began complaining that they didn't have sufficient control over the productions to do justice to them, elaborate rules were evolved to govern the combats and permit proper TriVee coverage of every gory detail. In time, the conflicts were nothing more than superbly contrived, stylized duels under pre-agreed conditions.
The rise of the League as a major interstellar power by 2250 then introduced a new element into the chaotic patterns of dozens of competing Faddish cults. Thu League was a force to be reckoned with, but the majesty of its power and prosperity was lost on its neighbors. Indeed, they reacted to the whole Faddish phenomenon with undisguised mirth and scorn.
As Boss Trigvie Mackelston observed to his lieutenants at a fateful meeting of Tetragammetron Syndicate's board meeting in 2258, 'Boys, we got no respect! Them High Republicans laugh at us and call us clowns. An' those Azzie bums are slappin' some pretty hard labels on us, like 'degenerates' and 'racial inferiors'. Boys, I'm tellin' you, we got a bad image problem. Sales are down out there. How can they take our products seriously, with this thing hanging over us? We need something with real class'.
Tetragammetion's Director of Marketing Research just happened to be a fanatic on classical Terran civilizations. For some time, David Thomas (Decius Maximus Thomas) had longed to return to Ancient Rome. (He had even foolishly invested CR 100,000 in a silly scam to build a time machine when approached by a trio of fast-talking con men. They were eliminated when the fraud was discovered by the angry Director). Thomas reviewed the whole history of League development and came to startling and far-reaching conclusions:
First, the League required a solid identity to pull it together. The League was fragmented by the innumerable Faddish cults. Rivalries between competing firms were fuelled and fanned into excessive violence by the very differences between Fadds, not genuine problems in competition or unresolved breaches of contract. It was violence for its own sake, social war which was tearing the heart out of the League from within.
Second, the League had to be larger than the individual corporations themselves. Having spurned statism and its restrictive laws and bureaucracies, the League could not turn back to statist institutions to bring social order. There had to be some way for social order- - for law and peaceful negotiation- - to prevail. There also had to be some way to encourage individual and corporate citizens to perform acts for the good of the entire League, while avoiding disgusting statist practices like excessive taxation and socialist public ownership of industry.
Third, the Roman model paralled in some ways the prevailing sentiments in the League. For in the early Roman Republic, power was a very personal affair between those who led and those who followed and obeyed. It was a Patron/Client relationship rather similar to the relationships existing in the League Worlds. Such personal ties of loyalty bound Patron and Client in the business world, but they could be strengthened and made still more meaningful and satisfying with a clear tradition backing them. If one also introduced the Greek concept of service to the nation as increasing one's personal stature and reputation, it could be possible to encourage the wealthy to make voluntary contributions to beautify and strengthen League life. In so far as some government was necessary, Roman governmental practices had a host of checks and balances, with numerous opportunities to introduce veto powers to prevent undesirable statist action.
Fourth, corporate leaders were much like Roman patricians, anyway, and the workers and other employees were the rank-and-file plebians. The changes would be largely outward, for show rather than substance. The Boss wanted respect; and if there was one thing that the old Romans had, it was a sense of dignity by the bucketful.
Thus the suggestion was tentatively introduced. To Thomas's surprise, the delighted Directorate of Tetragammetron instantly saw the untold vistas of possibility in his plan. The Romanization of Tetragammetron was carefully engineered down to the last detail, all in utter secrecy. Unlike the other Fadds, which were usually based upon poor research and the silliest misunderstandings of the past, the Eagle Project was the product of Thomas's serious and loving scholarship. Some of the most prestigeous Terran archeologists were consulted on a myriad of questions. The best R&D personnel in the company were placed on the detail work. Everything was conducted in utmost secrecy to prevent other corporations from learning what Tetragammetron was about to do. Hopefully, only Tetragammetron would be ready with a full line of 'Roman' products for sale when the Roman Fadd was released upon the public. Such a coup could net billions when the Fadd Groupies scrambled to join the new Craze.
On August 1, 2259, the Eagle and Thunderbolt of Tetragammetron Victrix, Inc., was broken out on all company buildings, vehicles, ships, and letterheads. Every employee appeared clad in appropriate and fully authentic costume. Management wore formal togas, with coded edging to denote departments and ranks. Security was clad in full legionary panoply- - Romanized LBA, red-plumed combat helmet with HUD and comlinks, silvered automatic conerifles with fixed forcebayonets, and vibro-shortswords. The rank-and-file Plebs were clad in tunics again color-coded for department and rank, with attractive jewellery that also doubled for badges of grade-rank in the organization.
In the middle of Faddish frivolousness, the solemn spectacle of Domini Trajanus Caius Mackelston (even Romanized names were adopted) was a study in contrast. Arriving at the House of Congress for the fall session, he was dressed in a meticulously pressed and folded toga of state, edged in Directorate purple. Flanking him was a squad of Tetragammetron Praetorians, personal guards in gilded armor. Following was a veritable platoon of aides in white togas edged in the black of Legal Section and carrying trim black attache cases. Behind trouped some hundreds of personal clients, also in Roman costume.
The opening of Congress was seen by millions on TriVee that night. Tetragammetron was a classic study in corporate solidity, seriousness, and power. Representatives of the other great corporations paled into insignificance. The Mob Fadders in their wide-lapelled pinstripe suits were seen as two-bit gunsels. The Cowboys were mere hicks from the sticks. The Rawkers were a sick joke. And so on through the list. There was sorrlething imperial about the Tetragammetron contingent. Thus there should be no surprise that T. Caius Mackelston's flawless oratory on the virtues of Romanization had a deep and profound on the entire League. So did Tetragammetron's massive ad campaign.
In the ensuing rush to join the new Fadd, Tetragammetron's profits were at record level as millions bought everything required to appear a proper Roman. Tetragammetron's TriVee series, 'Fields of Glory', was also an instant hit, commanding 89% of the total viewing audience twice a week. A public clamor soon arose on half a dozen planets for the construction of proper arenas so that fans could view gladatorial combats live. By the spring of 2260, the Romanization of the Mercantile League was well underway. Ten years later, the Fadd had solidified into a permanent cultural pattern, and the other Faddish cults all but disappeared.
In 2283, the Congress of the League voted unanimously to model League government along the lines of the Roman Republic. Thus they instituted the offices and titles of Senator for the patrician members of the Upper House, established an Assembly of the People or Lower House- - from which 10 Tribunes with veto powers would be appointed to oversee and act as a check on Senatorial power-- and created an executive on the Roman model. The Charmanship of Congress was altered to a pair of Consuls-Mercantile (presidential-equivalent), and other offices were given titles like Praetor, Praefect, Aedile, and the like. To match the actions of the Congress, which declared Augusta the capital world of the League, the Planetary Directorate of Augusta decreed that the capital, Newton, would henceforth be known as Nova Roma Antares. Adoption of Roman place names soon spread to the other worlds.
LEAGUE 'ROMAN' CUSTOMS & TRADITIONS
League culture is outwardly Roman. Close inspection reveals, however, that League customs and lifestyles are uniquely original.
Dress is, of course, Roman. Yet it is only worn on formal occasions and/or where it is appropriate. The familiar jump-suit is usually found in the workplace, especially where protective clothing is essential. The military wear Romanized uniforms for dress occasions, but combat uniforms and kit are strictly modern and highly functional.
Latin has been adopted as the formal language of the League, but the standard tongue commonly spoken is Basic Anglic- - the universal human tongue in the League, Azuriach Imperium, the Federation, and even in the G.P.R.
Class consciousness has developed to a significant degree. The toga is restricted to members of the patrician entrepeneurial and management classes (CR 100,000 per year or CR 1,000,000 in property), but a modified form can be worn by plebian citizens. Senators are permitted a purple strip 7.5cm wide. Entrepeneurs have a 5cm strip of gold. Other colors distinguish the various professions and management areas. A plebian may wear a plain toga on ceremonial occasions only. The toga is always of the purest white, and togas woven from the wool of the rare Terran sheep are the most highly prized.
Roman formalism dominates ceremonial occasions, with everyone decked out in his best Roman clothes. Especially popular are the Triumphs, which are handled in the ancient manner to greet a victorious commander and his troops on Augusta, where they are paraded in honor through the streets of Roma Antares.
By 2550, the appearance of a League settlement has become almost entirely Roman. But appearances mask the ultra-modern facilities of the architecture. Every modern convenience is present, but these are concealed to present the almost austere simplicity of Roman prototypes. Also, where efficiency dictates it, the structure can be utterly modern in every respect- - as in the case of a factory complex or a military base. Yet the most modern of installations will also have ceremonial areas on the Roman style.
The domus or home is modeled after the original - the general layout with rooms built around a central courtyard (atrium) with a reflecting pool or ornamental garden in the center. The domus is usually fully cybernetized, with full environmental control, cyber-kitchens, and a host of other modern features, but these are all carefully disguised under a facade of marble and decorative wall hangings. The furniture is Roman in appearance, usually of rich woods inlaid with other woods, ivory, or even mother-of-pearl, semi-precious stones, or precious metals. Statuary and fine pottery abounds. The banquet area is meticulously styled on the Roman model, and is lavishly furnished and decorated. For here the owner may entertain his friends, business associates, and important Patrons, and a show of wealth and success is essential to create the right impression. During such banquets, rich and expensive delicacies and beverages from the far-flung reaches of the League trading regions will be served with the same gusto and attention to culinary perfection as in the ancient Roman state.
The insulae or apartment complexes are the homes of the plebians and lesser patricians starting their way up the corporate ladder. The buildings are never more than 5 stories high (about 20 meters), as only public buildings are allowed to be of higher and more imposing stature in the urbs (city). Suburban structures may be taller, but they must be out of sight of the urbs. The average apartment compares in size to the typical apartment found throughout Terran history, but it is again decorated in the Roman style to the extent that the occupant can afford.
The capital of the League, Roma Antares, deserves special mention, for it is here that the most visible manifestation of League passion for all things Roman has reached its peak. The city is a full scale model of the ancient city which is its namesake- - painstakingly constructed over a period of two centuries. No expense was spared to reproduce every feature of the original Rome which modern scholarship could uncover. Changes are made only when a structure needs modernization of internal systems or replacement because of age.
Roma Antares was the brainchild of Lucius Flaminius Clio (formerly Larry Cliente of the great Flaminius Armaments & Munitions empire). He argued in 2319 that 'while the statist regimes all have impressive capital cities in which the pagentry of their cultures is proudly displayed, we have but a few miserable and dingy colonial settlements with resounding names but lacking the character of our great and proud heritage as Romans of the League. Thus I say, my fellow Senators, let us build this city, this New Rome. Build it on the planet which our forefathers first claimed in freedom, and let it bear the indelible mark that says to all who come after we are dead and forgotten that this was the City of the Mercantile League!'
Roma Antares never ceases to astound people, citizens and visitors alike, for the capital is a living museum. Though private dwellings are modeled according to individual tastes in Roman architecture, all the great public buildings and centers are precisely as they would have been a score of centuries past, and more. It should be noted in this regard that, while exact replicas of Roman art can be produced in the League, the originals are much sought after for both public and private display, and fabulous prices have been obtained for them. Unfortunately, the 'troubles' on Terra during the collapse of Pure Earthian society and the current reluctance of the Terran government to allow the heritage of the Human Race to leave its control have made legal acquisition of such treasures impossible.
