Bauxite Cartels

The Bauxite Cartels were a group of mining, refining, and manufacturing companies that collectively held a de facto monopoly on the production and use of aluminum. Although the power behind the Cartels shifted as factions within it rose and fell, their nominal capital was on the (almost entirely aluminum) artificial planet of Rojand.

As a vertical and horizontal monopoly, the Cartels could demand any price and privilege they wished from those looking to make use of aluminum. Due to aluminum's usage in an incredible variety of products, ranging from capital ships to appliances, this made the Cartels one of the most influential groups in human space. Indeed, were it not for the Cartel's factionalism and tendency to engage in intra-organizational trade wars every decade or so, they may well have been hegemons of known space.

Their downfall was twofold: on the supply side, they were unable to effectively bring into the fold new bauxite mines in the colonies, particularly far-flung ones such as commonly were founded by the Altitudinarian Fragment. On the demand side, groups concerned by the Cartel's power invested technology that did not require aluminum. The wholly biological creations of the Darwinists were one such technology.

-Manifold Cloth