...Besides, a starship owner
already owns a W M D that is far harder to defend against than any bunch of 50 kg missiles - his starship and its KE.
Kind of an expensive way to get even, sending your "barony" crashing down from orbit.
Actually you are thinking too noble like
If the ship has a cargo bay, just grab some large rocks and drop them from space.
Dave Chase
It's a wee bit more complicated than that. No way to be accurate about it, dropped as free-fall ordnance the things could land anywhere in a continent-sized area, and unless the target planet's very densely populated, the odds of doing any damage would be very low. If you dropped them from LEO, they'd hit terminal velocity, no? That'd seriously limit the impact damage. And if you ramp up velocity, rocks below a certain size burn up.
That "explanation" betrays a breathtaking ignorance of history in general and feudalism in specific. It also explains why you think your "Barony Equals Ship Ownership" idea works.
This is the IMTU forum but even IMTU ideas must be internally logical.
There is only limited application of Terran history to the dealings of a high-tech star-spanning empire. Given the cost of ships, I could see an expanding empire encouraging trade by offering titles to ship owners, assuming the ship owner had full title to his ship - I wouldn't hand a title to anyone who managed to score a bank loan. That would mean titles would only go to those who were either pretty wealthy to begin with or who had a long history of successful trade. I'd have gone with knighthood, though.
I believe that I spotted where the OP made an incorrect leap.
Let's go back to the Tudor era. There was a "whole New World to exploit". Many merchants owned ships. So, why didn't these guys get Patents of Nobility given to them by Eliz I (for instance) in such a situation?
Well, 2 MAJOR reasons. 1) If you went off to "exploit" those unclaimed riches, another gov (Spain perhaps?) would come and take it as you were not under the protection of another powerful Kingdom.
2) If you "struck it rich" and didn't have a Royal charter, Elizabeth would just send a warship to take it from the subject who didn't get her Royal Highness' permission in the 1st place.
So, the Free Trader owner is much more beholden to the Royal Gov than the other way 'round.
I think it depends on what you mean by "strike it rich".
I don't actually know of any instances where a private party had his
riches claimed by some other kingdom other than through privateering and raids and such. As far as I know, you didn't need royal permission to go hunting for riches in the New World. You just needed a lot of money, which usually translated to having rich backers since if you were rich in the first place you could hire some up-n-coming entrepreneur to do it for you while you stayed home.
Nor do I know of any instance where Elizabeth sent in a warship to take over some "strike it rich" find of a subject. What you COULDN'T do was claim territory for yourself and set up your own little kingdom ('cause THAT they would take from you). If you were
smart, you'd get royal sanction beforehand, so if you found
territory worth controlling, you'd have the backing of someone with an army and navy to ensure you and your backers got to keep your claim. Most people in that era, their next step after striking it rich was to find some way to parley that into a title, 'cause nobles had more rights and power than commoners, even rich commoners.
On the other hand, if you went trying to "exploit" in some territory that a power had already claimed, you were fair game - although Frances Drake earned a knighthood for himself that way, raiding the Spanish treasure fleet.