Islandbridge Trading Corporation
A commercial power in Reft Sector, outside of Third Imperium space. It advertises itself as the largest commercial conglomerate in the Islands subsectors.
Description[edit]
The Islandbridge Trading Corporation (ITC) is a stateless commercial organisation with offices and facilities on several worlds. Its registered headquarters is on Elysee, which possesses a good, class-B starport and a liberal government that imposes few restrictions on trading operations. ITC can therefore operate as its directors think best without undue political interference.
Politics[edit]
ITC personnel often come to view the corporate enclaves as a sort of surrogate homeland. These enclaves are separated from the general populace of whatever world or orbital habitat they are located in by walls, fences and security stations. Within the company enclaves, living standards are high even for low-grade workers.
The corporation is, in theory, politically neutral. It will deal with anyone who wants to buy or sell on terms that the company finds acceptable. This means that money and commercial advantage can buy ITC's political favour, and as a result the company has a large number of ever-changing rules about what can be traded where and with whom. These rules are strictly obeyed by corporate executives and enforced with great vigour to ensure that ITC maintains its trustworthy image.
Operations and Assets[edit]
A number of niche manufacturing firms operate under the ITC umbrella, such as minor, specialist shipyards and rare-minerals extraction companies. ITC runs all of the deep asteroid mining operations extracting Lanthanum for Jump drives in the Elysee, Besancon, Herzenslust and New Colchis systems. New Colchis finds it cheaper to buy from ITC than to develop its own Lanthanum mining industry, even though it is risky to rely on outsiders to provide this vital resource.
ITC is involved in joint projects with various powers, all of which are bound by confidentiality agreements. However, most of its major projects are undertaken on worlds not connected with the main Islands powers. These include infrastructure construction projects and uplift programmes designed to help local industry achieve higher technological levels.
Suspicion is growing in some quarters that ITC is more powerful and influential than it would appear. The one area where ITC has made few inroads is with Imperial traders.
References and Contributors[edit]
- John Harshman, Marc Miller. Trillion Credit Squadron (Game Designers Workshop, 1981), 46.
- Gary L. Thomas, Joe Fugate. "Reft Sector." The Travellers' Digest 20 (1990): 26-28.
- Martin Dougherty. Reft Sector (Mongoose Publishing, 2010), .