Jack of Harts

Once we perfected the deploying of orbital elevators we began shipping single-tether starter elevators to the existing colonies, and we of course added them to the basic colonization packages. Colonization missions were no longer pure scientific, exploratory, or flag waving expeditions by then. They were big business opportunities and the corporations required a cheap and effective way of moving freight up and down. Interstellar trade was nearly non-existent of course, but when a corporation gave money to support a colonization expedition they obtained certain understandings with the new colonial governments. These allowed many corporations to obtain vast tracts of land on many new worlds that would allow them to grow quite impressively over the centuries.