Financial Synod

The Financial Synod of Aerarium IV, held in the years 10 BG to 5 BG, was convened by Emperor Saudir I to address the various possibilities raised by the emergence of the Spacing Guild and its position among the Landsraad. The gathering ultimately produced the charter of CHOAM and shaped the commercial and political structure of the Imperium that followed.

The Guild's dilemma#

The Spacing Guild came to Aerarium IV with intense mixed feelings. The advantages of a reborn interstellar trade were clear, but so were the dangers of dealing with the emperor and the Landsraad, since the Guild's ability to guide ships rested not only on training but on a secret: the spice-trance of its navigators. Anyone who learned the secret of the spice-trance would learn what the Guild knew. In a deliberate misdirection, the Guild offered melange while representing it only as a spice that extended human longevity. Its ambassadors could honestly claim ignorance of the source of melange and allayed suspicion that it had any further effect, a stratagem that held for centuries.

The Guild emissaries warned the Synod against attempting to use the organization for purposes beyond what had been negotiated. They referred obliquely to the possibility of finding and seizing their refuge of Tupile, pointing out that no political power could match the Guild in space and that a search for its homeworld would take years, during which the Guild would simply destroy its hyperspace industry rather than be controlled.

Aligned interests#

The age-controlling properties of the spice strengthened the feudal states' desire for the Guild and the return of extensive trade, while also making them aware of their vulnerability and giving them another reason to wish to control it. Gradually it became clear that the Guild and the feudal houses had interests running in tandem: both wanted the return of trade, but only in a form that allowed each institution to survive. Unlike the Guild, the houses cared not only about the economic gains of trade but about its social and political effects. For years neither side could find a way to satisfy all of their aims.

One obstacle was the ambition of the most powerful Great Houses, those that hoped to become the Imperial House and saw in the Guild a means to elevate themselves if they could seize control of the new trade. The Guild refused to deal with them, and broader compromise among the feudal powers proved impossible for years. Yet matters were never allowed to deteriorate to the point where the gathering broke apart, a collapse the Guild feared most of all, since the Synod would decide whether it survived.

The breaking of the deadlock#

Saudir and his chief financial officer, the Dioicetes Asetirides, devised a proposal, but the emperor did not rely on the unprepared reaction of the full Synod. For months beforehand a series of meetings made the advantages of his plan clear to various feudal powers. The most powerful Great Houses were approached first individually, then together, while the weaker powers, which would become agents for the nonfeudal states, were handled in regional groups. The deadlock was broken after about two and a half years. During the latter half of the third year, as it began to appear that the impasse might destroy the Synod, the emperor called the delegates into full session and presented the plan for the formation of CHOAM.

After several months of argument over details, the charter was accepted. With the Synod's approval secured, the vote of the Landsraad was a foregone conclusion, since membership in the two bodies overlapped so heavily, and the formal vote followed within months of the Synod disbanding. The gathering thus gave rise to CHOAM and to the Imperium itself. The years that followed were spent in further bargaining between the new CHOAM directors and the off-world Guild agents over commercial areas, product rights, monetary exchange, tariffs, schedules, transport costs, and priorities, until full agreement was achieved.