Most Powerful Business Cartel in the Star Wars Verse...

[000]

I always hated Xizor. Third most powerful in the galaxy my ass... even ignoring governmental or military figures like Ars Dangor or any of the Grand Admirals, you could probably find a thousand others in the Core alone who wielded more power than him, from the Baron Tagge on down to Kuat of Kuat.

About the only thing I liked about him was his death-- smacked down by Vader for pissing him off.

[Ghost Rider]

As for Xizor, his legitimate business dealings are prominent, but as was pointed out in "Shadows" when he's at the Manarri, there are MANY wealthier people in the galaxy than him.

But how many weilded more power than him? I'm guessing less than a dozen.

In the book, only Vader and Palpatine. Even if we consider the Emperor's inner court, that might...might make it up to five or six, and even then.

And Chewie...he said they were more wealthy then Xizor Transportation Service...not Black Sun. So don't take it out of context.

[Srynerson]

Actually, the Inter-Galactic Banking Clan survives into the NJO under Imperial control with their offices still on Muunilinst. They're essentially the SW analog of the Swiss.

I thought the banking planet Aargau in the Zug system was the SW Swiss analog? ("Aargau" and "Zug" are even the names of real-life Swiss cantons.)

[Big Orange]

I think the whole point of Prince Xizor is that he assumed that he was third in line behind the most powerful being in the galaxy, Emperor Palapatine, and that ultimately led to his downfall in Shadows of the Empire.

Of course is sounds like he held fantastic wealth and power, but having not read that EU novel, I can only guess Xizor's pretentions led to him being killed by Lord Vader.

[Zac Naloen]

I think the whole point of Prince Xizor is that he assumed that he was third in line behind the most powerful being in the galaxy, Emperor Palapatine, and that ultimately led to his downfall in Shadows of the Empire.

Of course is sounds like he held fantastic wealth and power, but having not read that EU novel, I can only guess Xizor's pretentions led to him being killed by Lord Vader.

Xizor got killed by vader for trying to kill Luke. So yeh, his arrogance and assumed invincibility, because of his closeness to the emperor, were his downfall.

[NRS Guardian]

I thought the banking planet Aargau in the Zug system was the SW Swiss analog? ("Aargau" and "Zug" are even the names of real-life Swiss cantons.)

I don't think I've heard of Aargau, where does it appear. It's a big galaxy so I can imagine multiple banking planets, perhaps its best to describe the IGBC as the Cayman islands of the GFFA. The reason I said the IGBC was like the Swiss is that after the Clone Wars and Galactic Civil War it's still around providing economic support, and the way it seems they switched sides from the CIS to the Empire, makes them a bit mercenary.

[Publius]

The Corporate Sector Authority controls one whisp off of one branch of one arm of the galaxy. Thousands of stars but no native intelligences so it was liscenced to them for exploitation. Compared to corporations who sell goods to millions of worlds and to galactic level governments they are small fry.

Surely you can't be serious. The Corporate Sector Authority was one of the most successful financial ventures in the galaxy. According to Pirates & Privateers (West End Games, 1997) it was the "major supplier of raw materials processed by Imperial shipbuilding and manufacturers," a distinction not to be taken lightly when one considers the scale of the Imperial military-industrial complex. A Market in the Corporate Sector is defined as any jurisdiction generating an income of 50 billion credits a year; a typical Territory consists of 200 Markets or more, representing at least 10 trillion credits' worth of annual income (worth about 2,577 Imperial Star Destroyers, which cost about 3.88 billion credits apiece), and the Corporate Sector contains 29 discrete Territories.

In fact, a voting sponsor is required to make an initial investment of not less than 50 quadrillion credits, worth about 13 million Star Destroyers. A contributing sponsor is required to make an investment of not less than 50 trillion credits, or about 13,000 Star Destroyers. The Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook (West End Games, 1993) states that there were 37 voting sponsors, or an investment of 1.85 quintillion credits (477 million Star Destroyers), and over a hundred voting sponsors, or an investmennt of not less than 500 quadrillion credits (128.9 million Star Destroyers).

Furthermore, the Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook states that the Corporate Sector Authority has on more than one occasion realized a 360% return on investment. A voting sponsor like the Tagge Company, Millennium Entertainments, or Kuat Drive Yards would see a return investment of not less than 180 quadrillion credits (using the arithmetic formula ROI = (V_f - V_i)/V_i, where V_f is the final sum and V_i is the initial investment). In point of fact, the Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook mentions that the ExO – chairman of the board – has the precedence of a Grand Moff of the Empire.

In light of these facts – and the fact that the largest corporations in the galaxy are major investors in the Corporate Sector Authority – how can you possibly contend that the CSA is 'small fry'?

Vis-à-vis the original subject, this author has written a great deal about some of the largest corporations in the galaxy in the article series "A Billion Here, a Billion There...," including most of the members of the Galactic Corporate Policy League (GCPL), whose membership consisted of the Tagge Company (probably the single largest and most powerful for-profit corporation in the galaxy), Kuat Drive Yards, Rendili StarDrive, Millennium Entertainments, Ayelixe/Krongbing Textiles, Chiewab Amalgamated Pharmaceuticals Company, the Karflo Corporation, Bank of the Core, Merr-Sonn Mil/Sci, and Cybot Galactica. Each of these corporations – along with Duct Unlimited, zZip Product Concepts Ltd., Lerrimore Contracting Co., the Corellian Engineering Corporation, the Plexgrove Combine, Trigdale Metallurgy, Arcon Multinode Agricorp, Schaum/Yfarg/Wellbig/Fabrico and Associates, Kroeskin Fabrications, Novaplex, the Dweomilis Advisory Foundation, Industrial Automaton, Starshipwrights and Aerospace Engineers Incorporated, Santhe/Sienar Technologies, Red Star Shipping Lines, LeisureMech Enterprises, and Consolidated Learning Systems – are known to be in the '50P club' of corporations that can afford to purchase voting sponsorship in the Corporate Sector Authority.

As it happens, only two of the Galactic Emperor's advisors are known to have had power and influence exceeding that of the Prince Xizor, namely Sate Pestage and Ars Dangor, the Emperor's regents and alter egos. No other advisor is known to have had the same level of direct access and far-ranging influence as the Prince Xizor; indeed, the Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook mentions the ease with which he assassinated one of the privy counsellors, one Fendrilon Koozar. Not even Kuat of Kuat, the chief executive officer of KDY, was fully on the same level as the Underlord of Black Sun; while 'third most powerful man' is not entirely accurate, it is probably truer to say that he is in the third tier of galactic power, and that a bare handful of beings – Vader, Pestage, Dangor – occupy the second tier, with the Emperor himself being the sole occupant of the first.

Also: Aargau first appeared in "The Third Law" (Marvel Comics, 1981), in which it was established that Aargau, the third planet of the Zug system, was such an important banking center that Darth Vader found it necessary to tread with uncharacteristic delicacy; even the Galactic Empire found it politic to overlook the fact that the Bank of Aargau dealt openly with the rebel Alliance, and Vader came face to face with the Princess Leia of Alderaan and the Viscount Tardi, Minister of Finance of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, on several occasions without disruption of the peace. The feature "Aargau: For All Your Banking Needs" (Wizards of the Coast, 2003) gives further details, including the fact that Bank of Aargau Security, Ltd., was "the largest private army known to exist during the Emperor's reign."

Despite the stature of the Bank of Aargau and Bank of the Core, the InterGalactic Banking Clan apparently functioned as the central bank of the Empire and guarantor of its currency, according to Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds (Wizards of the Coast, 2004). It remained in Imperial territory throughout not only the years of the Isard regency, the Thrawn shôgunate, the Time of Destruction, and Operation Shadow Hand, but indeed as late as the Bastion Accords of 54 GR.

[Imperial Overlord]

long post

I can indeed be serious, even if I am in error. I haven't read the EU sourcebooks on the CSA, just the Han Solo novels and I will certainly defer to you on their contents. I was basing my postion on the size of the CSA which occupied "whisp off of a branch of a spiral arm," minescule compared to the size of the Galactic Empire. If it is acting as the primary supplier of raw material to the galaxy's largest corporations then it is far more important than its small area of territorial control would suggest.

[Ford Prefect]

And Chewie...he said they were more wealthy then Xizor Transportation Service...not Black Sun. So don't take it out of context.

"No one has more money than Black Sun" - Xizor muses on this in Shadows of the Empire, I believe, when he goes to a premier Coruscanti restaurant, that legitimately he doesn't have that much money.

EDIT: Missed the end of my post: Of course, Xizor is anything but legitimate.

[FTeik]

But do those numbers make sense?

If the total initial investment of all sponsers is 2.35 quintillion credits and the ROI is 360%, the CSA would have to earn 8.46 quintillion credits per year, ~ 292 quadrillion credits per territory and 1.46 quadrillion credits per market.

Which is a lot more than 50 billion.

Not that i doubt the numbers, but before sombody suggests a kind of trinary code used (you know, whom i'm talking about) ...

The only explenation i can think of is, that the income from outside the CorporateSector for raw-materials and stuff makes up for the difference.

[Publius]

The numbers are minimal. For example, a Market represents at least 50 billion credits per annum, but that does not mean that a Market cannot make more than that. Furthermore, there is no set number of Markets in a given Territory; the only solid figures are that there are 29 Territories, each Territory is divided into an unknown number of Regions, each Region typically contains 50 Zones, and Zones are composed of an unknown number of Markets. A Territory containing 200 Markets could generate 10 trillion credits per fiscal year; a significantly larger Territory could generate a markedly larger amount.

However, as you noted, there are other sources of income. For one thing, the Corporate Sector Authority supplies raw materials and processed goods to its investors at discount rates, which means that voracious industrial appetites like TaggeCo., KDY, RSD, and Karflo will be purchasing in bulk from it, as well as the Imperial State and other allied governments (the Dark Empire Sourcebook mentions that the CSA was in the arms dealing business). Not all of the company's revenues are necessarily from retail or in-Sector transactions.

[Big Orange]

Was Palpatine's family very, very, very wealthy , only they did not flaunt it like other Core World clans?

And even though Naboo is not part of the Core Worlds, it seems very wealthy for a system that deemed as "unimportant" by the Republic administration; apart from Palapatine's family, what other aristocratic families had their holiday estates located their?

Was the Naboo system rich in resources and was it expoilted by a mining corporation with the local Naboo aristocrats as it's managers and shareholders?

[Noble Ire]

Was the Naboo system rich in resources and was it expoilted by a mining corporation with the local Naboo aristocrats as it's managers and shareholders?

Though Naboo's moons do seem to possess valuable minerals in some quantity, it always seemed to me that Naboo was important, at least in its own sector, not because of resource wealth, but for cultural or historical significance.

Though undoubtedly the Naboo royal "line" had access to a great deal of wealth, I don't recall any mention of any particularly important corporations or investors being headquartered there (and I don't remember anything specific about Palpatine's family ever being mentioned).

[Publius]

Was Palpatine's family very, very, very wealthy , only they did not flaunt it like other Core World clans?

Details of Palpatine's family and early life are few and far between. The Introduction to the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook – the sourcebook is notionally an executive summary by Voren Na'al of The Official History of the Rebellion, Volume One – mentions that Palpatine "started out as a Senator and a noble, after all," but gives no further detail of his noble lineage; the Dark Empire Sourcebook states that "nearly all of Palpatine's personal records had been deleted from the known libraries" by the time of his death at Endor in 39 GR, to which Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary adds by saying that "records of Palpatine's ancestry, immediate family members, and upbringing on Naboo have mysteriously vanished" already during his term as Supreme Chancellor. Nevertheless, in "Red Queen Rising!" Orman, Baron Tagge, angrily rejected his brother Silas's proposal that they arrange for their sister Domina to "marry into the Imperial Family when she's old enough," which indicates that there must certainly be some members of Palpatine's family alive and enjoying Imperial dignity by virtue of their close consanguinity with the Galactic Emperor, although who precisely Silas intended for Domina to marry is unknown; the Princess Leia of Alderaan speculated in Children of the Jedi that Master Jedi Plett had turned Belsavis over to an Ithorian corporation in order to prevent it from "being exploited by some relative of the Emperor's."

Palpatine's distant grandniece Ederlathh Pallopides – she is 11 years old as of the 40s GR – is mentioned in the Dark Empire Sourcebook, which indicates that he must have had a brother or sister, while his late third cousin Volpau in "Boba Fett: Salvage" shared two of Palpatine's great-great-grandparents. Palpatine's son Triclops – probably a pseudonym – first appeared in Mission from Mount Yoda as a three-eyed mutant born to an unknown mother at an unknown point in Palpatine's career; Palpatine, foreseeing that one day his son could surpass even him in the power of the dark side of the Force, ordered his banishment on the very day of his birth, apparently not understanding that his son was deeply pacifistic. While imprisoned on Kessel, Triclops's relationship with the so-called "Jedi Princess" Kendalina produced a son, Ken, who first appeared in The Lost City of the Jedi. Triclops was probably aboard Space Station Scardia when Grand Admiral Afsheen Makati destroyed it in "Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals"; Ken's ultimate fate is unknown.

That is, to this author's knowledge, all that is known about Palpatine's family.

Was the Naboo system rich in resources and was it expoilted by a mining corporation with the local Naboo aristocrats as it's managers and shareholders?

There is evidently some mining industry on the planet, but certainly not enough to make it industrially significant; significant mining operations are on a planetary scale, conducted by multistellar corporations like Offworld Corporation, the Karflo Corporation, TaggeCo., the Mining Guild, or Trigdale Metallurgy.

Naboo's economic significance is more likely to be found in luxury industries, given its artisans' reputation for fine handcrafting. "The Monster" does mention Naboo's fragrance industry, and "Target: Vader" indicates that Naboo blossom wine and the attentions of a Naboo-born 'comfort woman' were both regarded as delicacies in certain circles. The planet also had a reputation for its soothing vistas, and Ruins of Dantooine mentions that the Galactic Emperor had chosen to maintain a private retreat there because of its pleasant atmosphere (and "not because of any maudlin sense of homeworld loyalty"). Naboo's fine arts are also reputed to be excellent, both in music and in the graphic arts.