Guild and the feudal houses had interests that ran in tandem Both wanted the return of trade, but only in a fashion which would permit each institution to survive As long as the Guild itself remained a secret, closed group, m control of the lanes of commerce, they cared little what political systems survived on the worlds the} served The feudal houses, on the other hand, cared about the economic benefits of trade, and just as deeply about the possible socio political effects of cultural interaction They wished to enjoy the former, without suffering from the latter For years neither the Guild nor the feudal powers could find a way to accomplish all their aims One of the problems was the ambitions of the most powerful of the Great Houses Most of these houses pre dated the rise of the House of Cornno, and regarded the success of the barbarians from Salusa Secundus as a freak of history which could and should be rectified Rectification, it was understood, would be accomplished by the rise to the throne of whatever house was speaking Those houses that still harbored such ambitions saw in the Guild an opportunity to elevate themselves if they could seize control of this new means of trade Thus threatened, the Guild refused to deal with many of the Great Houses, and compromise between the feudal powers m general and the Guild proved impossible for years But both the Guild and the emperor proved themselves skilled ne- CHOAM 162 CHOAM gotiators While the Synod remained unable to resolve its problems matters were never permitted to deteriorate so that the gathering broke up The Guild was especially con cemed mat this not happen for they knew that the outcome of the Synod would deter mine whether or not they survived The deadlock was broken only after two and a half years by the brilliant stroke of emperor Saudir and his chief financial officer the Dioicetes Asetindes During the latter half of the third year on Aeranum when it began to appear that the deadlock might destroy the Synod the emperor called the delegates into full session and presented to them the plan for the formation of CHOAM Neither the surviving records of CHOAM nor what has now been discovered and trans lated of the Imperial histories permit a full understanding of the structure of CHOAM But some outline is possible It seems cer tain that the plan Saudir proposed to the delegates envisioned the creation of a devel opment corporation which would have a monopoly on interstellar and intersystem trade One percent of the gross profits from this trade would be collected each year and placed in & fund to be distributed to the members of CHOAM on the basis of the shares they held m the corporation Such distributions would occur only after deductions from the fund for any projects for die advancement of existing trade or the development of new markets Membership in CHOAM was limited to the feudal governments The question of the distribution of shares naturally became one of