South Seas Development Company

The South Seas Development Company, previously known as the South Seas Trading Company is a Corummese joint-stock company originally founded in 1738 to trade in the Ocean of Cathay region. It expanded its interests to Australis, specifically the Corummese colonies in Zhijun and Stenza; being granted enormous economic concessions there from the Qian government in exchange for its development of local industries and use of its manpower to help maintain control of the colonies. The company sought an alternative route to avoid the Burgoignesc island chokepoints and its extortionate tariffs by developing what came to be known as the Southern Route, a maritime trade route stretching from southeast Alshar, passing through ports in Stenza and reaching the southern Kindreds Sea and ports in west Sarpedon. The company also got extensively involved in the Corummese periphery, spearheading Corummese economic domination in Canpei, Tanhai and Rusana in the 18th and 19th centuries. A series of questionable investment decisions, the loss of Stenza and pressure from Levantine competitors eventually led the company to insolvency, leading to a partial bailout and the imposition of government trustees. A much reduced company stripped of most of its important assets was sold off to private capital in 1956, being renamed as the South Seas Development Company operating out of Zhijun.