Majipoor | The Unique and Terrible Compulsion

The Unique and Terrible Compulsion

by Robert Silverberg

writing as Calvin M. Knox

Form: Novelette
Year: 1958

Publication history

1958: Super-Science Fiction December 1958, Magazine
2016: Early Days: More Tales from the Pulp Era, Subterranean Hard cover book, 344 pp. as The Traders

Blurb

(None on file)

Comments

Silverberg originally titled this story "The Traders," but editor W.W. Scott felt the need to juice it up a bit as "The Unique and Terrible Compulstion." In this story of interstellar trade, Earth has monopolized the transport of goods from world to world, become fantastically wealthy in the process. But maintaining that position requires scrupulous adherence to fair dealing and honesty, so when rumors surface of untoward behavior by the lone Earth representative on Danneroi, the Merchant Service sends an agent to investigate.