Fireball, founded two centuries previously, runs:
a spaceship line;
extraterrestrial mines and factories;
freight services;
scientific foundations;
trade in luxury goods.
Employees live in Fireball communities, send their children to company schools and often have a formalized loyalty to the company transcending nationality. The company deals with governments but avoids becoming one. We remember similar arrangements in other future histories.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I immediately thought of the Polesotechnic League in Anderson's Technic Civilization stories. And Nicholas van Rijn's Solar Spice & Liquors company, for example.
The nearest real world analog for a company like Fireball that I can think of would be Hudson's Bay Company, which is much older than Fireball, the former having been chartered in 1670.
Sean
Post a Comment