If I remember the novel correctly, the resource was either a mineable narcotic or mineable precursor material used in the making of a drug (eg not a common resource.), either way once it ran out, the management gets shipped off and the 'lower levels' are left with whatever society the sociologists came up with.

From: Caleuche <xxxxxx@sudnadja.com>
To: "xxxxxx@simplelists.com" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
Sent: Saturday, 20 January 2018, 15:07
Subject: Re: [TML] Population vs Tech Level

Depending on how hard of SciFi a setting you are maintaining, it's difficult to imagine what resource you would want to exploit from a planetary surface that isn't much easier to get from a asteroid belt - you're not working against gravity and whatever resource it is that you're after is never very far from the surface. It's further difficult to imagine that those kinds of resources wouldn't be more easily available in the asteroid belt (if it has one) or cometary halo of the star system with the high population world in it.

Dying of Paradise does sound like it's worth a read though.

-------- Original Message --------

On January 19, 2018 10:34 PM, Graham Donald (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:

You've just reminded me of a novel I read quite a few years ago called "Dying of Paradise" (1982) by Stephen Couper (Not available electronically.), in that novel you have a planet which was settled by a corporation to exploit a particular resource. This results in a low population world with a highly concentrated population. Once the resource ran out, the company 'bean counters' worked out that it was cheaper to ship out the management level and hire some sociologists to create a workable society, plotwise the novel involves the usual revolt against the company imposed system. However it makes a good startpoint for at least some systems.

Graham
From: Evyn MacDude <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
Sent: Saturday, 20 January 2018, 9:51
Subject: Re: [TML] Population vs Tech Level
On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 11:01 PM, Caleuche <xxxxxx@sudnadja.com> wrote:

And a huge number of Traveller worlds have population codes between 4 and 7 with tech levels between 7 and 13. Random worlds that Travellers visit will be less populated than midsize cities - the median imperial world population is ~700,000.

Think about in terms of what does that world produce? Not every world is a colony, a lot are going to be commercial concerns shipping some commodity. Thus they will have enough infrastructure to support the production of said commodity and whatever luxuries that the population involved in production require.

--
Evyn
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