Megacorps In Steampunk

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I recommend looking up Kipling's "The Mary Gloster" for a look at ethically dubious business practices in the Age of Steam. It's only a few pages long and is a compelling story.

'"Not least of our merchant princes" - Dickie, that's me. Your dad.' Frankly, it's a marvellous bit of literature for it's size, like several Kipling poems.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

One thing is that if you're taking the steampunk period without putting a lot of shine on it, the government is pretty well on board the "oppressive order" thing in its own name and with its own muscle. It's unlikely to welcome or even tolerate a company stepping on its prerogatives overmuch there, in its core areas.

(Unless you're doing American steampunk rather than the stereotypical British setting. The US is in the period of robber barons, cattle barons, transcontinental railway companies, and so forth - and is fast heading towards the point where coal companies assert that machine guns are essential to their business.)

EDIT: Really business usurping government seems to mostly happen where government takes a light hand at best - like certain imperial territories, formally extraterritorial colonial activities, or the US western territories.

*punk generally requires central government to be weak, absent or incompetent ... and frankly there were many places even in the home states of the C19 empires that were not much touched by the capital. Governments that get in everyone's business are a very modern phenomenon (although probably less so in continental Europe). Of course being weak or incompetent doesn't necessarily mean that the state can't be brutal - a police force that ignores most public order work but comes down hard on dissidents and other selected crimes (such as counterfeiting) is entirely in genre.

Come to think about it, is Perdido Street Station (and to a lesser extent The Iron Council) Steampunk or what?

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by scc

Railway owners who acted like they where kings, or at least some sort of nobility, also called robber barons.

I suppose I was unclear. I was suggesting rail barons.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

*punk generally requires central government to be weak, absent or incompetent ... and frankly there were many places even in the home states of the C19 empires that were not much touched by the capital. Governments that get in everyone's business are a very modern phenomenon (although probably less so in continental Europe). Of course being weak or incompetent doesn't necessarily mean that the state can't be brutal - a police force that ignores most public order work but comes down hard on dissidents and other selected crimes (such as counterfeiting) is entirely in genre.

Come to think about it, is Perdido Street Station (and to a lesser extent The Iron Council) Steampunk or what?

Steampunk, from what I've seen, is usually not 'punk' in that sense. Not any more than adventure fiction as a whole, anyway.

[smurf]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

Absolutely. Look at the British East India Company; they literally had their own army, although they couldn't use it in Britain. Any history of coal mining (just for example) is rife with price-fixing, horrific labour practices, private goon squads (that's where the Pinkertons got their start). Coffin ships might be something to take direct inspiration from if shipping is a big part of the plot.

Ship insurance may I have been high until about the 1876 with legal development of the Plimsoll Line. This was not a fixed way of preventing loss until 1894 when it was standardised for various displacements.

Originally Posted by a humble lich

Exactly. Except Steampunk megacorps aren't called that, they are still called trusts. The East India Company is a good example, also Krupp, Standard Oil, US Steel, and De Beers.

The third plot point reminds me of the Bell Telephone company and the Edison Trust, which were both basically early tech companies based on patents.

After 1873 financial crash there is a move to finance capital and export capital with monopolies granted big time. Oil companies, Berlin to Baghdad Railway, various steam companies requiring massive investment to lay down tracks. Down to building really fast ships and drug running (Opium wars) on a massive scale.

Originally Posted by Culture20

I suppose I was unclear. I was suggesting rail barons.

Colonial fifedoms were set up by Europeans all over the place. Most notoriously was Cecil Rhodes who began a war over the Transvaal in Southern Africa where the British Army attacked the Africans and the Boers. Rhodes was rewarded by having a country named after him - Rhodesia (Now part of Zimbabwe).

The crossover works really well because you do have mega corps running roughshod over everything. Ultimately they are reigned in by regulation because governments can see the big picture and what is best for all of its local companies and not just what is good for one and not another.

Remember different rail companies were laying different gauge tracks. in the UK there was the standard gauage, narrow gauge and Brunel's wide gauge.

There were financial battles of electricity whether to use AC or DC. The electric motor, internal combustion engine challenging gas powered lighting and the external combustion engine.

What power should electricity be? These corporations were running rampant all over the place.

When companies made the City of Truro locomotive and the Flying Scotsmans they may have been looking at the Berlin experimental electric train that could run faster. Back in those days everything was about speed.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by smurf

There were financial battles of electricity whether to use AC or DC.

Those were actually resolved really quickly, and before electric power became a major business. Edison's company was installing AC equipment just a few years after Edison denounced it.

[khorboth]

Consider hybrid political merchant-political entities like the Medeichi family as well. They can stand in for a lot of the roles you want a megacorp to fill and have a much more steam- feel.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by khorboth

Consider hybrid political merchant-political entities like the Medeichi family as well. They can stand in for a lot of the roles you want a megacorp to fill and have a much more steam- feel.

The proper legendary financial family for the 1800s may be the Rothschilds, though.