White Star Trading

White Star Trading is the original crosstime import-export company of Paul Van Zandt -- and still the largest.GURPS Infinite Worlds, p.40-41 Originally funded from a single parallel, this company spans dozens of worldlines and hundreds of offices. Uninhabited worlds are utilized for raw resources, low-tech worlds export some amount of homemade goods, and more modern worlds tend to trade in timeline-based oddities. Some offices are small and very specific, dealing in items that are priceless on other worlds, such as original artworks from long-dead painters.GURPS Infinite Worlds, p.40
== Known Offices ==
TL 	Worldline 	Location / Trade
TL3-4	Attila 	Caravanserais in general
TL7 	Reich-2 	Venture capital firms. TL7+1 aerospace?
TL6 	Campbell 	Movie studios, especially fantasy films
TL7 	Gallatin 	Small, specialty trades, such as DVDs or exotic animals.
TL8-9	Bonaparte-4	Trading advanced tech with the US, Brazil, and Russia, presumably to strengthen them against a fall against the French Empire.
TL6+2	Gernsback 	Buying light metals in bulk, medicines, and seedlings of new crop varieties--as well as cultural artifacts.Infinite Worlds, p.127
== Rules of Engagement ==
Era 	TL 	Trades
"Uncivilized" 	TL0 	Bulk resources, from wood to cocoa to gold. Smugglers use these worlds as bases--or sources of slave labor.
Pre-Scientific 	TL1-4 	Works of art; specialized agricultural products like Falernian wine or Incan blue potatoes. Books, scrolls and the like are immensely valuable to crosstime historians.
Smugglers tend to trade for the same, but quite unfairly.
Scientific 	TL5-8 	Potentially dangerous to the Secret, so trade is more regulated. Artworks, curios and mass media are common. Smuggling can involve just about anything.
Advanced 	TL9+ 	Too dangerous to trade with, as high-tech worlds could discover a crosstime-traveling plot. Smugglers might look for tech and artifacts on these worlds, risking discovery.
Para-Scientific	any TL	Worlds with magic, psionics, strange physics or unusual "genre conventions". Worlds with Supers could be disastrous if smugglers are discovered by supervillains!
== Connections ==
Faction 	Relation
Golden Lodge of Asten	These mages occasionally trade with White Star.
The Chicago Outfit 	Gangsters who always manage to get into White Star's trades, one way or another. The Outfit has managed to get their hands on a decent amount of Conveyors, but seem limited to Quantum 5.
Infinity Unlimited 	IU and company presumably regulates White Star and its operations.
== See Also ==
* White Star Trader (template)Infinite Worlds, p.190
== References ==