Margins Of Profit

I have been side-tracked from Poul Anderson's collections back to his Technic History but there is an overlap because the original version of "Margin of Profit" is in the non-History collection, Un-Man and other novellas, whereas the revised version is in the Technic History collections, The Earth Book Of Stormgate and, more definitively, The Van Rijn Method.

The original version is set in an alternative timeline where:

there is a Solar Federation, not a Solar Commonwealth;
the "Martians" are natives of Mars, not colonists from outside the Solar System.

In both versions, as in the later story, "Hiding Place," a spaceship captain is also a Lodgemaster of the Federated Brotherhood of Spacemen. This would create a conflict of interest if a brother needed Brotherhood representation when in a dispute with the captain. There would have to be crew representatives as well as the Lodgemaster on board a ship.

"The regalia of a Lodgemaster in the Federated Brotherhood of Spacemen was stiff with gold braid, medals, and jewelry, far removed from the gray coverall he wore on deck..." (Un-man..., New York, 1962, p. 105)

"The formal garb of a Lodgemaster in the Federated Brotherhood of Spacemen was a far remove from the coverall he wore in his ship..." (The Van Rijn Method, New York, 2009, p. 138)

Anderson toned down the Lodgemaster's apparel from ostentatiously expensive regalia to undescribed formal garb! That regalia is a far remove from what many trade union members would want their representative to wear at their expense. In a life or death matter like Borthu, many union members would demonstrate outside a meeting between Lodgemaster and employer. Some would want to attend the meeting even if not invited although it would be advisable to go in unarmed. A fire fight with van Rijn's security would solve nothing. In fact, lobby guards a kilometer below (!) had disarmed the Lodgemaster on his way in so a forced entry by demonstrators would be difficult.

The textual differences between the versions are probably too numerous to enumerate although I will see what I can do in subsequent posts!