The Third Seldon Crisis
By the time of the Korell crisis, the Foundation's religion of science had lost its effectiveness. Korell rejected Foundation priests outright, and its secret alliance with Imperial remnants gave it military parity. The old strategies of religious manipulation were useless.
Hober Mallow, a Foundation trader, recognized that the new tool of power was not religion but trade. He deliberately sold Foundation technology to Korell — not the technology of power plants and weapons, but consumer goods: household conveniences that created an irreversible dependency.
The Economics of Conquest
When Korell attacked the Foundation with its Imperial-supplied warships, the Foundation simply withdrew its traders. No new consumer goods arrived. Existing products broke down with no one to repair them. The Korellian economy, now dependent on Foundation trade, collapsed within months.
This bloodless victory demonstrated that economic influence was more powerful than either military force or religious mystique — a principle that would guide the Foundation for the next century.