"Your present mess.
I had nothing to do with it."
"Consider the question suitably modified."
"A strong offensive is indicated.
The stalemate you seem to be satisfied with is fatal.
It would be a confession of weakness to all the worlds of the Periphery, where the appearance of strength is all-important, and there's not one vulture among them that wouldn't join the assault for its share of the corpse.
You ought to understand that.
You're from Smyrno, aren't you?"
Mallow passed over the significance of the remark.
He said, "And if you beat Korell, what of the Empire?
That is the real enemy."
Sutt's narrow smile tugged at the comers of his mouth,
"Oh, no, your records of your visit to Siwenna were complete.
The viceroy of the Normannic Sector is interested in creating dissension in the Periphery for his own benefit, but only as a side issue.
He isn't going to stake everything on an expedition to the Galaxy's rim when he has fifty hostile neighbors and an emperor to rebel against.
I paraphrase your own words."
"Oh, yes he might, Sutt, if he thinks we're strong enough to be dangerous.
And he might think so, if we destroy Korell by the main force of frontal attack.
We'd have to be considerably more subtle."
"As for instance-"
Mallow leaned back,
"Sutt, I'll give you your chance.
I don't need you, but I can use you.
So I'll tell you what it's all about, and then you can either join me and receive a place in a coalition cabinet, or you can play the martyr and rot in jail."
"Once before you tried that last trick."
"Not very hard, Sutt.
The right time has only just come.
Now listen." Mallow's eyes narrowed.
"When I first landed on Korell," he began, A bribed the Commdor with the trinkets and gadgets that form the trader's usual stock.
At the start, that. was meant only to get us entrance into a steel foundry.
I had no plan further than that, but in that I succeeded.
I got what I wanted.
But it was only after my visit to the Empire that I first realized exactly what a weapon I could build that trade into.
"This is a Seldon crisis we're facing, Sutt, and Seldon crises are not solved by individuals but by historic forces.
Hari Seldon, when he planned our course of future history, did not count on brilliant heroics but on the broad sweeps of economics and sociology.
So the solutions to the various crises must be achieved by the forces that become available to us at the time.
"In this case, -trade!"
Sutt raised his eyebrows skeptically and took advantage of the pause,
"I hope I am not of subnormal intelligence, but the fact is that your vague lecture isn't very illuminating."
"It will become so," said Mallow.
"Consider that until now the power of trade has been underestimated.
It has been thought that it took a priesthood under our control to make it a powerful weapon.
That is not so, and this is my contribution to the Galactic situation.
Trade without priests! Trade alone! It is strong enough.
Let us become very simple and specific.
Korell is now at war with us.
Consequently our trade with her has stopped.
But, -notice that I am making this as simple as a problem in addition, -in the past three years she has based her economy more and more upon the nuclear techniques which we have introduced and which only we can continue to supply.
Now what do you suppose will happen once the tiny nuclear generators begin failing, and one gadget after another goes out of commission?
"The small household appliances go first.