Intergalactic Rumpish Securities Exchange

As the largest stock exchange in the known universe, the IGRSE is often referred to as “the beating heart” of the Rumpish economy and by extension all of Rumpish civilization. It was initially established near the end of The Great Doldrum with the aim of providing greater economic and political stability to the Local Group.

The Rumps' first institution

Before the IGRSE, the Rumps were a scattered and little-regarded people. The exchange gave them a centre, and they rose with it. It was their first and greatest institution, and for more than eleven thousand years it was, in effect, their government as well: wealth was the measure of a Rump, and the exchange was where wealth was kept and counted. Of all the Rumps whose names are remembered, only Chæmbo, The Barbarian, is older.

From government to engine

The Peace changed what the Rumps needed. After The Destruction of Chickenheim in 0 CP they had a conquered people to hold down and a military that grew with every campaign, and an exchange, however vast, was not made to govern either.

Then, in 327 CP, Arch Duke Quillis Cromwell laid siege to the IGRSE itself and absconded with over 32 trillion seeds of corn. The body that governed the Rumps had been unable to guard its own vaults. Less than two centuries later, in 500 CP, Mayor Davos Hassimir founded the Hassimir Council, and government passed to it. The Council measured a Rump not by wealth but by military merit, through the Rump Factor.

The IGRSE did not decline. It became what it is still called, the beating heart of the Rumpish economy: no longer the government of the Rumps, but the engine that pays for everything the Council commands.