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During the Clone Wars, the Galactic Republic made a deal with the Hutt Cartel to use hyperspace lanes through Hutt territory for Republic military traffic.

After the Clone Wars ended, the Galactic Republic was transformed into the Galactic Empire. How has Imperial-Hutt relations and diplomatic agreements changed since the Republic era?

Looking for both canon and Legends answers, since I'm assuming there's not much in the former to go on.

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    I should imagine they continued on much the same tack. Palpatine had little interest in the outer rim planets
    – Valorum
    Commented Mar 19, 2017 at 13:18
  • @Valorum, on the other hand, the Stormtroopers didn't hesitate to push their weight around at Mos Eisley. Wasn't that considered Hutt territory?
    – Harry Johnston
    Commented Mar 19, 2017 at 23:19
  • @HarryJohnston - I've wondered about that before. They were very careful not to ruffle the local's feathers by killing the Jawas.
    – Valorum
    Commented Mar 19, 2017 at 23:34
  • @Valorum Thing is, criminal empires thrived under the Republic for a reason. An Empire cracking down without hesitating to use deadly force is always bad for business. Also, the appointing of Tarkin as Governer of the entire Outer Rim doesn't look like Palpatine has "little interest" to me either. If the criminal empires have armies strong enough to resist the GAR from simply seizing those hyperspace lanes from criminals, why not throw the Empire out?
    – thegreatjedi
    Commented Mar 25, 2017 at 10:32
  • @thegreatjedi - Palpatine's primary aim was the development of his battle station. He was (at least according to 'Tarkin') made Grand Moff so that he could better coordinate the materials and manpower needed without having to wait for the Emperor to order the other Moffs to do what he asked.
    – Valorum
    Commented Mar 25, 2017 at 10:55

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The book Shadows of the Empire-discusses in length criminal organizations(black sun), and also mentions the Hutts as well. Criminals thrive in any government, even if it means being the government itself. The empire traded with the Hutts, and used their operatives to spy, coerce, assassinate, or capture targets. Sort of like a mercenaries acting as a shadow government, helping the empire. Vader spoke to Jabba himself, discussing finding Luke. The empire had no interest in taking over the monetary gain the Hutts were building, as the Empire already had far more credits than the Hutts. In fact, any one of Emperor/Vader/Xizor had more credits than the Hutts combined. There was no reason to clean up those planets of criminal activity, it benefited them more to keep a business relationship.

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