Nectar Of Heaven: E.C. Tubb

Book XXIV of Dumarest. The planet had two unique elements: it produced the galaxy's most hallucinatory drug and it was a stockbroker's paradise. Every hour, every minute, rich men's holdings traded on a continuous stock-market. Up and down went values as men conspired to seize each others' properties. The money game controlled everything - the common people, workers, farmers, lives, poverty and luxury. Earl Dumarest went there to find his next stake - the drug-gem, or manipulate the market - but the advisors of the inhuman Cyclan were determined to fix the odds against Dumarest. Cover art by Blas Gallego.