Commerce Guild
The Commerce Guild functioned as a massive trading collective, incorporating significant commercial enterprises, for example, the SoroSuub Corporation. It was infamous for coercing smaller businesses into joining its ranks.
Following the execution of Presidente Shu Mai, the organization was dismantled and subsequently imperialized by the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY.
History
The organization's origins can be traced back to 700 BBY, a period when it operated a trading station within the Bpfassh system. The Guild exerted considerable pressure on any companies that resisted joining, utilizing its security forces to do so. Much like the Trade Federation, Corporate Alliance and the InterGalactic Banking Clan, the Commerce Guild maintained its own security forces. Its influence extended to the political sphere, where it wielded considerable power and maintained connections with corrupt planetary officials, senators, and industrial spies.
The Commerce Guild possessed the financial capacity to acquire entire planets, such as Castell, the native world of the Gossam. The Guild proceeded to enslave the entire population of Castell. At the time, Shu Mai held the position of Chief of Property Resources within the Commerce Guild. Initially, she leveraged her position to free her people, but later imposed tribute demands on her fellow Gossam. Impressed by Mai's actions, the Commerce Guild Chief of Staff appointed her as Presidente of the organization. Subsequently, Mai engaged in aggressive negotiations and successfully resolved the decade-long financial crisis that had plagued Castell. The planet then became a significant manufacturing hub for the Guild.
In 27 BBY, the Commerce Guild proposed a bill for approval by the Galactic Senate, which aimed to grant the Guild a de facto monopoly over banking operations in the Outer Rim Territories. In an effort to secure its passage, the Guild bribed numerous voting Senators to sponsor the bill. However, several others, including Senator Bail Prestor Organa of Alderaan, voiced their opposition and vowed to block the legislative initiative. To neutralize the Senatorial opposition, the Guild devised a scheme to discredit them, damage their reputations, and potentially ruin their careers. This involved falsely implicating the Senators in rigged betting on various events and orchestrating an accident at an "illegal" podrace during the Galactic Games of 26 BBY on Euceron. The Guild's plan entailed a podracer crashing into the spectator stands, resulting in numerous casualties and placing the blame on the Senators. Liviani Sarno, a member of the Guild and head of the Games Council, orchestrated the conspiracy with the assistance of Maxo Vista, who sought membership in the Guild. However, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jocasta Nu uncovered the plot, and Anakin Skywalker successfully thwarted it. With Organa and the rest of the opposition still politically viable (as the falsified betting had been exposed), the law was ultimately vetoed.
Despite this, the guilty parties managed to evade justice, largely due to the perjury of Bog Divinian, a power-hungry Games Council member who sought to gain favor with the Guild. With the support of the Guild and other sponsors, Divinian ascended to political power by securing a seat in the Galactic Senate, thereby maintaining the Guild's favor. However, Divinian's career was short-lived, as he was embroiled in the 24 BBY anti-Jedi factional petition to sever all future Jedi affiliation with the Senate. The petition failed spectacularly, coinciding with a vicious attack by two of the galaxy's most notorious criminals on the Senate Rotunda, where the body was assembled in full session to debate the petition. Following this unmitigated failure and near-catastrophe (the Jedi having ultimately foiled the attack), the Guild lost all interest in further assisting Divinian.
In 25 BBY, the criminal Slam gang attempted to infiltrate a security vault belonging to the Commerce Guild. However, before they could complete their heist, the Slams were apprehended and imprisoned.
In 24 BBY, the Commerce Guild established an office on the tax-free world of Korriban. Guild members facing disciplinary action were sent there, and the Guild also encouraged other corporations to open offices in the Korriban spaceport of Dreshdae. By 23 BBY, local Guild executives were experiencing an alarming increase in robberies at their hotels. Citing this rise in crime against its workers, the Guild deployed a droid army (including dwarf spider droids and homing spider droids) to Korriban, in violation of Republic laws. This likely marked the beginning of the collaborative relationship between Shu Mai and Count Dooku, as some of these droids, along with new Republic regulation-violating super battle droids, were utilized by Dooku's alter-ego Darth Tyranus to repel Jedi intrusion into the long-abandoned Great Temple and Sith Academy, where he had established a base for meeting with galactic criminals Granta Omega and Jenna Zan Arbor to form an alliance with them.
In the years leading up to the Clone Wars, Shu Mai significantly expanded the Guild's military and commercial influence. She also instigated conflict on Ansion, which led to the Mission to Ansion, and aligned the Guild with Count Dooku's Separatist movement.
In 22 BBY, Mai attended a meeting of Separatist leaders on Geonosis, where the Confederacy of Independent Systems was established. Although she recognized that supporting the Separatists constituted treason against the Galactic Republic, she succumbed to the allure of promised wealth. She allied the Commerce Guild with the Confederacy during the Clone Wars, providing armies of battle droids for their Droid Army and starships for their starfleet.
During the Clone Wars, Shu Mai attempted to leverage the combined military strength of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Commerce Guild to distribute deadly trihexalon on Coruscant, with the aim of eliminating the Republic Senate. However, a group of Jedi padawans, led by Mavra Zane and Chewbacca, thwarted the plot.
Following Shu Mai's execution by Darth Vader on Mustafar in 19 BBY, the Commerce Guild was disbanded, and its remaining assets were absorbed by the Galactic Empire. Despite the Guild's dissolution, some of its subsidiaries, such as SoroSub and the Mining Guild, were permitted to continue operating and prospered during the Imperial Era, as the Empire became their largest client. At least one Commerce Guild employee, Iaco Stark, sought refuge within the Corporate Sector Authority.
Associations
Notable members
- Shu Mai : Presidente and former Chief of Property Resources .
- Cat Miin : Primary assistant to Shu Mai toward the end of the Clone Wars.
- Iaco Stark : Smuggler and pirate responsible for initiating the Stark Hyperspace War in 44 BBY .
- Thal K'sar : An employee of the Commerce Guild.
- Beolars Bribbs : President of the Sullustan Council and CEO of SoroSuub Corporation .
- A Gossam : Potentially another assistant to Shu Mai.