135:" although that condition is not clear in the story), a market for slavery develops. Decades later, while there is still an abundance of land, this market remains because the colony itself has quotas to meet and debts to repay and cannot spare the resources to develop local industries to make the machines itself, and free labor does not have to bid its price down enough to outcompete slave labor.
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Throughout the story, Heinlein takes the view of the objective narrator in describing
Venusian society. "Logic of Empire" places different rationales on the people who participate in slavery. There are no real villains; everybody is just doing their job of trying to maximize income in a mercantilist
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Ostensibly a tale about a man in the wrong place at the wrong time and his struggle to free himself from the oppressive circumstances in which he is plunged, the story also attempts to explain how slavery develops in a new colony. Even in the future, the technology available to a new colony is always
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There is in the story a casual reference to the rise of the fanatic preacher
Nehemiah Scudder, who would eventually be elected president and establish a theocratic dictatorship which would rule the US for several generations. Heinlein considered writing a story focusing on his rise, which would have
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had the name "The Sound of His Wings" and chronologically followed directly upon "Logic of Empire." He never did so, and a great gap was left in the Future
History which resumes with the overthrow of the theocracy in "
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system. Even the plantation owner who owns the hero is portrayed as a struggling and failing small businessman, whose main motivation is to secure a livelihood for his daughter.
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23:"Logic of Empire" was originally published in the March 1941 issue of
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sold to a farmer. His discovery that it will take him years to
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Works originally published in Analog
Science Fiction and Fact
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16:Novella exploring slavery by Robert A. Heinlein
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110:, which thus increases his debt every day.
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82:men are arguing about whether there is
166:Internet Speculative Fiction Database
7:
616:Short stories by Robert A. Heinlein
58:(March 1941) and was collected in
52:series, it originally appeared in
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585:The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein
315:The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
1:
533:The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
385:Delilah and the Space Rigger
291:The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
647:
621:Short stories set on Venus
331:The Pursuit of the Pankera
55:Astounding Science Fiction
26:Astounding Science Fiction
378:The Man Who Sold the Moon
323:To Sail Beyond the Sunset
264:The Past Through Tomorrow
232:The Man Who Sold the Moon
67:The Past Through Tomorrow
455:The Green Hills of Earth
240:The Green Hills of Earth
61:The Green Hills of Earth
307:The Number of the Beast
90:, and one of them gets
427:It's Great to Be Back!
420:The Black Pits of Luna
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469:The Menace from Earth
413:Gentlemen, Be Seated!
283:Methuselah's Children
164:title listing at the
106:, an expensive local
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563:Andrew Jackson Libby
358:"Let There Be Light"
299:Time Enough for Love
364:The Roads Must Roll
44:by American writer
626:1941 short stories
434:—We Also Walk Dogs
256:Orphans of the Sky
211:Robert A. Heinlein
64:(and subsequently
46:Robert A. Heinlein
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593:Expanded Universe
541:Delos D. Harriman
171:"Logic of Empire"
162:"Logic of Empire"
100:work off his debt
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479:If This Goes On—
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175:Internet Archive
150:If This Goes On—
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568:Hazel Stone
441:Searchlight
224:Collections
610:Categories
520:Characters
125:water pump
92:shanghaied
352:Life-Line
503:Universe
489:Coventry
108:narcotic
96:contract
577:Related
399:Requiem
344:stories
173:on the
84:slavery
42:novella
37:" is a
596:(1980)
588:(1966)
496:Misfit
342:Short
334:(2020)
326:(1987)
318:(1985)
310:(1980)
302:(1973)
294:(1966)
286:(1958)
275:Novels
267:(1967)
259:(1963)
251:(1953)
243:(1951)
235:(1950)
114:Themes
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104:rhira
88:Venus
80:Earth
133:land
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