Answers

(i) Suleimites harvest bluejack, a spice and tonic for hydrogen-breathers. The Solar Spice & Liquors Company sells it to Babur.

(ii) The Baburites send armed, self-defending robots to harvest the bluejack.

(iii) The SSL factor, Emil Dalmady, gets the Suleimite Translator to approach the robots crudely disguised as a Baburite. Instructed by radio, the Translator reprograms the robots.

(iv) The robots are reprogrammed not to harvest for SSL but to stand idle so that the Suleimites can continue to harvest. They are also reprogrammed to attack, after a warning, any approaching machine and anyone attempting to enter the computer blockhouse. Thus, the Baburites are excluded even if they attempt some trick or disguise.

(v) Dalmady recommends not raising the price of bluejack to Baburites in case they decide to synthesize it.

(vi) Nicholas van Rijn has to interview Dalmady to confirm that he has found the best answer by intelligence, not by luck. Then he backs him as an independent entrepreneur.

The Escape And Birthright

I found this image on the Internet. Does anyone know what "The Escape" by Poul Anderson is about?

Next, I will reread all or parts of Anderson's "Birthright"/"Esau," the purpose being to answer certain questions:

What was the Solar Spice & Liquor Company's trade deal on Suleiman?
How did the Baburites threaten this deal?
How did the Altaian factor, Emil Dalmady, turn the tables on the Baburites?
Why did Nicholas van Rijn agree to interview Dalmady?
Why did Dalmady immobilize the Baburites' robots instead of reprogramming them to work for SSL?
Why did van Rijn agree that this was the best action that Dalmady could have taken?

I already know the answers to most of these questions but it will be helpful to list the answers in a blog post. However, it is too much to ask right now since I got up early this morning and it is getting late now. Since we are contemplating not the Terran Empire but the Polesotechnic League, the appropriate sign-off is not "Glory to the Emperor!" but "All the traffic will bear!"

Emil Dalmady

Emil Dalmady:

"...had been born and raised on Altai."
-Poul Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (New York, 2009), p. 524.

His parents sent him to:

"...managerial school offplanet..." (p. 526).

Solar Spice and Liquor employed him as their factor on Suleiman, where he outwitted the Baburites who later invaded Hermes and Mirkheim. Nicholas van Rijn, the owner of SSL, backed Dalmady as an entrepreneur. Some of Dalmady's children, including Judith Dalmady/Lundgren, accompanied David Falkayn (see also here) to Avalon (see also here).

Judith wrote accounts of:

her father's experience on Suleiman;
an incident on Ivanhoe (where Falkayn had been as an apprentice) of which Dalmady had heard when he was an entrepreneur;
an incident involving Falkayn's grandson on Avalon (see here).

These accounts were included in The Earth Book Of Stormgate. See also here.

Thus, the Dalmadys are an important family in the History of Technic Civilization.