Interstellar Trade And Travel Time

Stories about interstellar trade can focus on long periods of time spent travelling between stars:

Poul Anderson's Kith travel slower than light (STL) and dwell in Kith Towns on planetary surfaces;

James Blish's Okies live in cities that travel between stars faster than light (FTL) but still need antiagathics to survive such long trips;

Anderson's Nomads travel FTL and do not need antiagathics but have chosen nomadism and spend most of their lives in their ships.

Anderson's Nicholas van Rijn, living on Earth, runs a company whose FTL ships are fast enough to carry goods and report back without having to invest years or decades in each trip.

In "Margin of Profit," van Rijn receives a report, then leaves the Solar System.

In The Man Who Counts, he is on an extra-solar planet.

In "Esau," he receives a report.

In "Hiding Place," he is in a spaceship that does not need years to complete a journey but has run into other kinds of difficulties.

In "Territory," he is on an extra-solar planet.

In "The Master Key," he receives a report.

Thus, Polesotechnic League interstellar travel is faster than that of the Kith, Okies or Nomads. We get a sense of a dynamic economy spanning vast distances with individuals like van Rijn and Falkayn able to travel from end to end of Technic civilization on particular missions.