Foundation Outline 5, The Merchant Princes = The Big and t..

The Merchant Princes

Written 1943
Published: 1944
21 000 words
Date: 154 - 160 F.E.

1
Jorane Sutt, Secretary to the Mayor, sends the trader Hober Mallow on a
trade/spy mission to Korell, a barbarian kingdom in the Empire's sphere
of influence (900)

2
Jorane Sutt and Publis Manlio, Primate of the Church anticipate a
Seldon Crisis, because the Foundation has lost ships on Korell, which
is armed with atomic weapons;They plot to seize power (800)

3
Mallow invites Jaim Twer, a leader of the traders, to accompany him on
his mission to Korell, and he accepts (900)

4
Mallow on Korell; His ship is surrounded by a crowd and his men admit a
missionary without his permission; Mallow orders the missionary
released to the Korellian authorities; Mallow is granted an audience by
the Commdor of Korell (2600)

5
Mallow meets the Commdor and proposes to him a new type of commerce
without any religious strings attached, at which the Commdor is
delighted; Mallow demonstrates a piece of atomic jewelry, and arranges
to visit a foundry, which he promises to reequip with atomic devices
(1800)

6
The Commdor speaks with his consort the Commdora, the daughter of an
imperial viceroy; She tongue-lashes him, and he soothes her with some
atomic jewelry (500)

7
Mallow and Jaim Twer briefly discuss their visit to the foundry and
what they will find there (300)

8
The foundry; Mallow sees guards there equipped with imperial blasters,
proof that the Empire is reemerging into the periphery (700)

9
Mallow's ship the _Far Star_ has departed from Korell; He leaves his
ship in a lifeboat to explore the nearest imperial territories (200)

10
Mallow visits Siwenna, where he encounters the aged patrician Onum
Barr, a refugee in one of the deserted regions of the planet (2600)

11
Mallow visits a tech-man on Siwenna, and in return for a personal
force-shield, the tech-man promises to show him his generators (1100)

12
Mallow visits the tech-man's power station, then returns to Terminus
(300)

13
Mallow's interview with Jorane Sutt, who threatens him with
prosecutuion for surrendering the missionary on Korell, unless he
accepts Sutt's political program; Mallow calls his bluff (2300)

14
The trial of Hober Mallow and its triumphant conclusion (2300)

15
Mallow orders Ankor Jael to have Sutt and Manlio arrested; Mallow to
become Mayor and High Priest, in order to cope with the approaching
Seldon Crisis (400)

16
The Commdor announces to the Commdora that he has decided on war with
the Foundation; His hate for her (500)

17
A Foundation ship attacked by forces of the Empire (100)

18
Mallow Mayor; His last interview with Sutt; Mallow explains to Ankor
Jael why the Foundation's victory is inevitable: economic warfare;
victory of the Foundation (2700)


Comments' This is my favorite story of the nine. The plotting is
masterly, the language perhaps the finest of all Asimov's fiction,
particularly in scenes 10, 11 and 12. Jorane Sutt is drawn
inconsistently however. In the early scenes he is a more or less
sympathetic figure, only to turn into a storybook villain at the end.
Interestingly, Asimov suggests vaguely that he is a homosexual
(well-manicured hands, unmarried, devious). This is of course a mere
bigotted caricature of the type, but alas, Asimov seems always to have
thought in caricatures. Sometimes his caricatures have an astonishing
force however, e.g. the Roman Patrician or the Shrew or the Imperial
General. The plot is managed with immense skill. He has little power to
move the emotions, but perhaps the novel as a literary genre is not
well-suited to expressing emotions well.

re: the KSP uv tattouage,

Yes, and you are right to point this out as a weakness in the plot. As
courtroom drama, it is very effective, but leaves the more thoughtful
reader uneasy.

As for the atomics sold to Korell, it is hard to believe that a whole
economy could be retooled in only a few years, across the vastness of
space, and harder still to believe that the industrialists of Korell
would have permitted the Commdor to go to war in the first place,
knowing that their factories would soon be so much scrap metal.

Asimov, as an atheist, needed something other than the divine will or
fate, in order to lend his fiction grandeur and nobility. He (or
Campbell) found psychohistory. But psychohistory itself in its raw form
at least, furnishes only somewhat intractable material for popular
fiction, which demands characters whose _personal_ actions are of
importance.