Chapter 2131. The Beginning and Ending of the Trade Alliance (2)
2132. The Beginning and Ending of the Trade Alliance (2)
When the power of the Trade Alliance is so huge that it is almost impossible to increase, Their methods also began to become increasingly extreme.
The Trade Federation began to use extreme measures to deal with competitors, just like their former enemies. Assassination, frame-up, kidnapping, extortion, all kinds of methods are endless.
They also began to extend their tentacles into the political field and began to bribe congressmen in large quantities to get these congressmen to vote on issues that were beneficial to them. And he began to conduct his own business activities through secret transactions and illegal channels, laundering much of the wealth built on sin through official channels.
Not only that, the Trade Federation also began to conceal a lot of navigation data in their hands, which resulted in a lot of the navigation data in the hands of the Galactic Republic being incomplete and out of date. As a result, the Galactic Republic is often unable to send judicial fleets to the Outer Rim Stars quickly and effectively unless approved by the Trade Federation.
In the subsequent Clone Wars, why the Galactic Republic struggled to counterattack the Confederacy of Independent Systems? The navigation data concealed by the Trade Federation also played a very critical role.
And in places like the Outer Rim Star Region, the Trade Alliance is really like heaven. Without the support of the Trade Federation, many planets cannot even survive.
The Trade Alliance uses various methods such as plunder and robbery to make these planets its own economic vassals. For example, they dump a large amount of food to stimulate population growth, and dump a large amount of advanced products to corrupt these people's lives. These planets seem to have better lives and a more developed economy, but in fact all of this is based on debt.
Then in order to repay the debt, the Trade Federation arranged for these planets to sell their populations, resources, and labor force, or set up factories to let them produce products that were of no use to the planet - such as all the products on a certain planet. The factories all produce armored hulls for Predator-class armed cargo ships.
As a result, these planets have no choice but to become vassals of the Trade Federation. Without the Trade Federation, they cannot even feed the expanding population base on their own planets! Therefore, they can only sign a permanent agreement with the Trade Federation, mortgage everything on the planet to the Trade Federation, and become their 'permanent customers'.
In this way, the Trade Federation secretly controlled thousands of galaxies and signed long-term trade contracts with even more galaxies. Then they let the senators from these planets use it to their advantage and vote for the Trade Federation on issues.
With its strong strength and influence, the Trade Federation has also successfully obtained a seat in the Galactic Republic Parliament, and can speak as a political entity in the highest authority in the galaxy. There are only two companies that have this kind of treatment - the Interstellar Banking Association and the Trade Alliance. Other super giants, such as Kuat Power Shipyard, only have planetary councilors, but they do not have company councilors. Of course, the Kuat Power Shipyard at that time was naturally far from being comparable to the Trade Federation.
Not only is it a brutal expansion from the outside, but the struggle within the Trade Alliance is also very bloody and cruel.
The Trade Alliance is governed by a seven-person parliament. Around the position of the seven-person parliament, the internal struggles within the Trade Alliance are also bloody and cruel.
In this process, the ruthless, yet shrewd and meticulous Neimoidians became more and more powerful within the Trade Federation, and they began to steadily occupy one of the seven-member parliament.
More than a hundred years later, 150 years ago, as the Trade Federation became more and more powerful in the Outer Rim Star Region and became more and more out of control, the Galactic Republic could no longer Get no tax in the Outer Rim Sector. This is very embarrassing for the Galactic Republic, which has begun to gradually suffer from economic embarrassment - because it also means that the results of the Galactic Republic's large-scale expansion campaign carried out in the outer ring sector for hundreds of years have been completely embezzled by the Trade Federation.
In order to regain financial revenue in the Outer Rim Star Region, but also because of the good reputation accumulated by the Trade Alliance in the past, and also because a large number of MPs who had been bribed by the Trade Alliance spoke for the Trade Alliance with a unified voice. At that time, the Galaxy The Republic made a decision that was later seen as a very wrong decision - the establishment of the Outer Rim Free Trade Zone.
The establishment of the Outer Rim Free Trade Zone is equivalent to recognizing the status of the Trade Alliance as the Earth Emperor in the Outer Rim Star Region. By establishing the Free Trade Zone, the Trade Federation was exempted from local taxes, and instead they levied taxes on planets in the Outer Rim and turned them over to the treasury instead of the Galactic Republic.
In exchange, the Trade Federation agreed to hand over a more detailed star map to the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order, but accordingly, the Galactic Republic also acquiesced to the Trade Federation treating this star map as private property. power to be made public. It is equivalent to acknowledging that the Trade Alliance monopolizes all traffic in the outer ring star area.
Not only that, imposing taxes through the Trade Alliance is equivalent to completely handing over the financial power of those planets in the outer ring star region to the Trade Alliance. In this way, the Trade Federation can tax whatever they want, and how much they hand over to the Galactic Republic depends entirely on their mood. This is equivalent to having huge power of life and death over the outer ring star region.
It was also around this period that Hego Damask II and his apprentice Sheev Palpatine began to extend their evil hands to the Trade Federation. Support the Neimoidians and prepare to use them as a tool to control the Trade Federation.
As part of the conspiracy, Sheev Palpatine planned a shocking plan through the pirate Iaco Stark he secretly trained. He had the Stark pirates begin openly attacking Trade Federation fleets, and targeted the supply of bacta fluid, which was then monopolized by the Trade Federation.
As we all know, bacta liquid is the most important medical material in almost all medical institutions in the galaxy. Almost all serious injuries can be cured by just soaking in a bacta tank. And because the Trade Federation's fleet was attacked in large numbers, a lot of robbed bacta liquid was transported to the outer ring star region.
You must know that under normal circumstances, backward planets in the outer ring star region are not eligible to enjoy such high-end goods. So this move by the Yako-Stark pirates made them very popular in the Outer Rim Star Region. However, as far as the Galactic Republic is concerned, the Stark pirates who robbed a large amount of Bacta fluid and caused a supply shortage in the core circle and inner ring are an absolutely intolerable crime.
So at that time, under the leadership of Wilhuff Tarkin's cousin, Renaf Tarkin, the Galactic Republic sent a judicial fleet to prepare to destroy the Stark pirates.
But this whole thing was a conspiracy. The then Governor of the Trade Alliance, Hasker, had already colluded with the Bacta Company and Yako Stark under the strings of Darth Sidious. They secretly planted a virus into the navigation computer of the Republic's judicial fleet.
At that time, when the Judiciary Fleet entered the outer ring star area, it needed to navigate through the Trade Alliance, which made it very easy to implant the virus.
After being eroded by the virus, the Republic's judicial fleet suffered a devastating blow and suffered heavy losses. This is exactly Darth Sidious's plan. He hopes that after destroying the Justice Fleet, he can take the opportunity to control the Galactic Republic through the Trade Federation.
But later, under the desperate fighting of Mace Windu, Plo Koon and other Jedi masters, the Galactic Republic defeated Yako Stark and eliminated the crisis of national annihilation.
This is the war known as the "Stark Hyperspace War". It is also the scale of the Galactic Republic's experience in the more than a thousand years between Rusan's reform and the outbreak of the Clone Wars. The biggest war.
Although the plan to subvert the Republic failed, Darth Sidious, with the help of his master Darth Plagueis, successfully concealed the Trade Federation's sins in this matter, and everything The blame was placed on Yako Stark. They also used this incident to strengthen the power of the Neimoidians within the Trade Federation, and further controlled the Trade Federation through Newt Gunray, who was not yet the governor at the time.
After the Stark Hyperspace War, the Trade Federation began to act more aggressively, and they met their demands through large-scale military operations in the Outer Rim Stars many times. The largest and most serious one was the siege of the planet Naboo.
The Galactic Republic is also aware that the Outer Rim Star Region is gradually losing control. At the initiative of Chancellor Finis Valorum, the Galactic Republic is preparing to withdraw the establishment of the Outer Rim Free Trade Zone and re-establish the Outer Rim Star Region. Nationalized and taxed in the outer ring.
This incident led to the most acute conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Trade Federation.
At the same time, as I said before, the pirate Yako Stark who robbed the Bacta liquid was considered by the people in the Outer Rim Sector as a hero who robbed the rich and gave to the poor. Such a hero was defeated by the Galactic Republic. Naturally, the Outer Rim Sector does not recognize the Galactic Republic even more.
So under such circumstances, when I heard that the Galactic Republic actually wanted to collect taxes here? This almost instantly ignited a wave of resistance in the Outer Rim Sector.
Count Dooku’s separatist movement also had a hotbed of growth at this time.
Thanks to Xingchen Ai Novel for the 100 starting coins! !