Campbell liked the idea, and by the end of a two-hour meeting Asimov planned to write a series of stories depicting the fall of the first Galactic Empire and the rise of the second.

Asimov wrote seven more stories for Campbell's magazine over eight years, and they were later collected into three book volumes known as The Foundation Trilogy (1951–1953).

("Galactic Era"), mathematician and psychologist Hari Seldon has developed psychohistory, a new field of science and psychology that allows for the probabilistic prediction of future events.

By means of psychohistory, Seldon has discovered the decline and eventual fall of the Galactic Empire, angering its rulers, the Commission of Public Safety.

The three issued a joint ultimatum that all be allowed to receive nuclear technology from Terminus City, ensuring that the Encyclopedists were indispensable to all.

In the kingdom of Anacreon, Prince Regent Wienis and his teenage nephew, King Lepold I, launch a direct military assault against Terminus, making use of an abandoned Imperial battlecruiser.

The ship's commander, Admiral Prince Lefkin, Wienis's son, is captured and forced to broadcast a message to Anacreon.

Master Trader Eskel Gorov, an agent of the Foundation government, travels to the world of Askone, hoping to trade atomics.

Gorov, however, is met with resistance by Askone's governing Elders due to traditional taboos that effectively ban advanced technology.

Councilor Pherl, the Grand Master's protégé, believes that a stable supply of gold will increase his power, and Ponyets sells him the transmuter.

While the Master Trader and his crew are waiting in a spaceport hangar, a man identifying himself as "Reverend Jord Parma" appears, saying he is a missionary.

"[4] At the same time, P. Schuyler Miller received the volume favorably, but noted that the "revision and inter-writing" of the component stories was "not quite so successful a job" as Asimov had managed with I, Robot.