The Trader's Guild is an organization that helps to regulate trade throughout the Verse.
Overview[]
The origins of the Trader's Guild are lost in the mists of early Arrival in the new galaxy. Some say it all started with barrel hoops. No one knows for sure. What is known is it all started on New Canaan, the tiny planet with the perfect weather. For anyone but the Rus. The climate on New Canaan was naturally what terraformers call the 'Mediterranean' model. Mild winters, long springs and summers with just enough rain to produce abundant crops of grapes and olives, as well as lemons, limes, squash, tomatoes, onions, garlic and leeks. Potatoes grew poorly. What thrived most was the Amero corn. They would later distill this into Old Earth Kentucky style bourbon.
"We have made ourselves Grechesk'iya (Greek) for you," was something every child heard their parents say on New Canaan. Of the two moons, one is heaven and one is hell. Ugarit, the nearer terraformed perfectly into a prime farming moon. The capital city, Ugarit, holds a banking center, and a beach, hundreds of shops, museums, restaurants, bars and other attractions. Ugarit is one of two 'resort worlds' favored by the Rus The other moon, called 'Lilac' by the Alliance, is an icy waste at the poles, poor farming in the rocky temperate zone, an inferno underneath, fit only for the subhumans who work the mines there. The Rus called it Palkha--the pit of Hell.
Whether it was barrel hoops or pickaxes, the Rus of New Canaan formed The Galactic Trading Guild originally to facilitate getting goods to Novy Khanaan in days or weeks instead of months. Or getting lost altogether.
The Sihnon-ha had apparently solved their supply and demand problems, but the Ameros were doing their best to drown themselves in red tape when the the new Guild made them an offer. "Let us do all your shipping. We guarantee--fast or free." They assembled a vast fleet of freighters of all sizes, also rescue and emergency craft, junk haulers and tugs, painted them all blue and stencilled in the logo of the new company: BLUE SUN. The Big Business interests who ran Londinium and the other Anglo-American Central Planets initially turned them down. Not long after, they started losing ships and shipments at an unprecedented rate. The would-be Amero Oligarchs went back to the Guild on bended knee. It only cost them twice what they would have paid if they had accepted the initial terms.
From shipping, they branched out into manufacturing. On world after world, the Blue Sun logo meant cheap to reasonable prices on quality goods, readily available, anywhere in the Galaxy. They have built an empire off that promise.
And all on account of an angry winemaker who couldn't get barrel hoops delivered at pressing time in the vineyards of New Canaan.