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The testimony of the many stories that involve Outsiders and the logical structure of their existence suggests what kinds of payment they would be interested in.

If you read enough of the many Known Space stories you'll find that the Outsiders do quite a lot of business with warm species for as little contact as they have with them, so we have several chances to see how that work.

• They lease space on Triton (first seen in At the Core, and it comes up several times after that)
• They sell Elephant the coordinates of "The most unusual planet in known space"
• They deal with the Puppeteers and the colonists repeatedly in the Fleet of Worlds series and its prehistory (the primordial deal for the planet drive is also discussed in Ringworld).
• They sell the humans of We Made It the hyperdrive early in the first Man-Kzin war

They seem to accept payment in

1. Information (as suggested by zephyr) or technology (though in the Fleet|Juggler|Destroyer|Betrayer of Worlds books it is made clear that the races of Known Space have little to offer in this respect with an exception related to reason (3)). Because those are things that they can take with them, and re-sell again and again.

2. Credit expressed in a local currency that they can expect to use (as geoffc notes), which means offered by races that are politically stable and sufficiently well established to have a expectation of lasting a long time.

That said, their willingness to sell the hyperdrive to We Made It suggests that they are willing to take a chance on up-and-coming races. After all their marginal costs are low, and the potential for profit is fairly high.

3. Spoiler reason (read the Fleet of Worlds series first)

Protection of their juvenile stage: the star seeds.

The testimony of the many stories that involve Outsiders and the logical structure of their existence suggests what kinds of payment they would be interested in.

If you read enough of the many Known Space stories you'll find that the Outsiders do quite a lot of business with warm species for as little contact as they have with them, so we have several chances to see how that work.

• They lease space on Triton (first seen in At the Core, and it comes up several times after that)
• They sell Elephant the coordinates of "The most unusual planet in known space"
• They deal with the Puppeteers and the colonists repeatedly in the Fleet of Worlds series and its prehistory (the primordial deal for the planet drive is also discussed in Ringworld).
• They sell the humans of We Made It the hyperdrive early in the first Man-Kzin war

They seem to accept payment in

1. Information (as suggested by zephyr) or technology (though in the Fleet|Juggler|Destroyer|Betrayer of Worlds books it is made clear that the races of Known Space have little to offer in this respect with an exception related to reason (3)). Because those are things that they can take with them, and re-sell again and again.

2. Credit expressed in a local currency that they can expect to use (as geoffc notes), which means offered by races that are politically stable and sufficiently well established to have a expectation of lasting a long time.

   That said, their willingness to sell the hyperdrive to We Made It suggests that they are willing to take a chance on up-and-coming races. After all their marginal costs are low, and the potential for profit is fairly high.

3. Spoiler reason (read the Fleet of Worlds series first)

   Protection of their juvenile stage: the star seeds.

The testimony of the many stories that involve Outsiders and the logical structure of their existence suggests what kinds of payment they would be interested in.

If you read enough of the many Known Space stories you'll find that the Outsiders do quite a lot of business with warm species for as little contact as they have with them, so we have several chances to see how that work.

• They lease space on Triton (first seen in At the Core, and it comes up several times after that)
• They sell Elephant the coordinates of "The most unusual planet in known space"
• They deal with the Puppeteers and the colonists repeatedly in the Fleet of Worlds series and its prehistory (the primordial deal for the planet drive is also discussed in Ringworld).
• They sell the humans of We Made It the hyperdrive early in the first Man-Kzin war

They seem to accept payment in

1. Information (as suggested by zephyr) or technology (though in the Fleet|Juggler|Destroyer|Betrayer of Worlds books it is made clear that the races of Known Space have little to offer in this respect with an exception related to reason (3)). Because those are things that they can take with them, and re-sell again and again.

2. Credit expressed in a local currency that they can expect to use (as geoffc notes), which means offered by races that are politically stable and sufficiently well established to have a expectation of lasting a long time.

That said, their willingness to sell the hyperdrive to We Made It suggests that they are willing to take a chance on up-and-coming races. After all their marginal costs are low, and the potential for profit is fairly high.

3. Spoiler reason (read the Fleet of Worlds series first)

Protection of their juvenile stage: the star seeds.

The testimony of the many stories that involve Outsiders and the logical structure of their existence suggests what kinds of payment they would be interested in.

If you read enough of the many Known Space stories you'll find that the Outsiders do quite a lot of business with warm species for as little contact as they have with them, so we have several chances to see how that work.

• They lease space on Triton (first seen in At the Core, and it comes up several times after that)
• They sell Elephant the coordinates of "The most unusual planet in known space"
• They deal with the Puppeteers and the colonists repeatedly in the Fleet of Worlds series and its prehistory (the primordial deal for the planet drive is also discussed in Ringworld).
• They sell the humans of We Made It the hyperdrive early in the first Man-Kzin war

They seem to accept payment in

1. Information (as suggested by zephyr) or technology (though in the Fleet|Juggler|Destroyer|Betrayer of Worlds books it is made clear that the races of Known Space have little to offer in this respect with an exception related to reason (3)). Because those are things that they can take with them, and re-sell again and again.

2. Credit expressed in a local currency that they can expect to use (as geoffc notes), which means offered by races that are politically stable and sufficiently well established to have a expectation of lasting a long time.

That said, their willingness to sell the hyperdrive to We Made It suggests that they are willing to take a chance on up-and-coming races. After all their marginal costs are low, and the potential for profit is fairly high.

3. Spoiler reason (read the Fleet of Worlds series first)

Protection of their juvenile stage: the star seeds.

The testimony of the many stories that involve Outsiders and the logical structure of their existence suggests what kinds of payment they would be interested in.

If you read enough of the many known space stories you'll find that the Outsiders do quite a lot of business with warm species for as little contact as they have with them, so we have several chances to see how that work.

• They lease space on Triton (first see in At the Core, and it comes up several times after that)
• The sell Elephant the coordinates of "The most unusual planet in known space"
• They deal with the puppeteers and the colonists repeatedly in the Fleet of Worlds series and it's prehistory (the primordial deal for the planet drive is also discussed in Ringworld).
• The sell the humans of We Made It the hyperdrive early in the first Man-Kzin war

They seem to accept payment in

1. Information (as suggested by zephyr) or technology (though in the Fleet|Juggler|Destroyer|Betrayer of Worlds books it is made clear that the races of Known Space have little to offer in this respect with an exception related to reason (3)). Because those are things that they can take with them, and re-sell again and again.

2. Credit expressed in a local currency that they can expect to use (as geoffc notes), which means offered by races that are politically stable and sufficiently well established to have a expectation of lasting a long time.

That said, their willingness to sell the hyperdrive to We Made It suggests that they are willing to take a chance on up-and-coming races. After all their marginal costs are low, and the potential for profit is fairly high.

3. Spoiler reason (read the Fleet of Worlds series first)

Protection of their juvenile stage: the star seeds.

The testimony of the many stories that involve Outsiders and the logical structure of their existence suggests what kinds of payment they would be interested in.

If you read enough of the many Known Space stories you'll find that the Outsiders do quite a lot of business with warm species for as little contact as they have with them, so we have several chances to see how that work.

• They lease space on Triton (first seen in At the Core, and it comes up several times after that)
• They sell Elephant the coordinates of "The most unusual planet in known space"
• They deal with the Puppeteers and the colonists repeatedly in the Fleet of Worlds series and its prehistory (the primordial deal for the planet drive is also discussed in Ringworld).
• They sell the humans of We Made It the hyperdrive early in the first Man-Kzin war

They seem to accept payment in

1. Information (as suggested by zephyr) or technology (though in the Fleet|Juggler|Destroyer|Betrayer of Worlds books it is made clear that the races of Known Space have little to offer in this respect with an exception related to reason (3)). Because those are things that they can take with them, and re-sell again and again.

2. Credit expressed in a local currency that they can expect to use (as geoffc notes), which means offered by races that are politically stable and sufficiently well established to have a expectation of lasting a long time.

That said, their willingness to sell the hyperdrive to We Made It suggests that they are willing to take a chance on up-and-coming races. After all their marginal costs are low, and the potential for profit is fairly high.

3. Spoiler reason (read the Fleet of Worlds series first)

Protection of their juvenile stage: the star seeds.