Travel along what used to be Route 66 and see all the small, once thriving towns, that have collapsed or are in the process of collapse. All that happened was an interstate highway was constructed a few miles away and they no longer had "America's Main Street" running through.
Hmmm. In the Hammerverse, planets are self sufficient in food production IIRC. The interstellar trade would be higher end goods. So the "collapse" might not be the whole planet but the elite who depend on that trade to bolster their status. If suddenly the farmers who feed everyone and mechanics who maintain the tractors and irrigation lines are on top of the heap, the old elite would consider it a catastrophe.
As for not exiling dissidents . . . that might be a deliberate plan to prevent new powers arising who would displace the current Solar System order. A British time traveler might want to prevent settling the new world, so Britannia can keep her preeminence.
That's already happened, though. Alliance and Union are both products of Earth's futile attempts to control what goes on in space, the end result of which was the Company War described in Downbelow Station (and the pretty decent Mayfair Games game about it).
Travel along what used to be Route 66 and see all the small, once thriving towns, that have collapsed or are in the process of collapse. All that happened was an interstate highway was constructed a few miles away and they no longer had "America's Main Street" running through.
You make a good point. A lot of those little towns had nothing going for them besides being fuel & rest stops - like the Hinder Stars.
Hmmm. In the Hammerverse, planets are self sufficient in food production IIRC. The interstellar trade would be higher end goods. So the "collapse" might not be the whole planet but the elite who depend on that trade to bolster their status. If suddenly the farmers who feed everyone and mechanics who maintain the tractors and irrigation lines are on top of the heap, the old elite would consider it a catastrophe.
As for not exiling dissidents . . . that might be a deliberate plan to prevent new powers arising who would displace the current Solar System order. A British time traveler might want to prevent settling the new world, so Britannia can keep her preeminence.
That's already happened, though. Alliance and Union are both products of Earth's futile attempts to control what goes on in space, the end result of which was the Company War described in Downbelow Station (and the pretty decent Mayfair Games game about it).