The story takes place in the backdrop of Trantor's rise from a large regional empire to a single Galactic Empire unifying the millions of worlds in the galaxy. This story occurs around the year 34500, where the Trantorian empire encompasses roughly half the galaxy. The independent planet Sark exploits the planet Florina, and derives its great wealth from the Kyrt (a versatile fabric) that can only be grown on there. The relationship between Sark and Florina is analogous to the situation between the Colonial powers and their colonies in mid 20th century, where the Florinians are forced to work in kyrt fields, and are treated as an inferior race from the Sarkites. Attempts to break the Sark monopoly and grow kyrt on other worlds have thus far been unsuccessful. The main topic of the novel is