Published in 1980. It has strong very intentional parallels to what happened when a technologically more sophisticated civilization (Europeans) arrived in North America at least how an exchange economy largely destroyed the Indian economic order as superior technology such as iron and firearms supplanted native cooking utensils and the bow. This in surprisingly short order made the Indians dependent on the Europeans. The bow had largely fallen out of use by Northeast woodland Indians by 1690 -- and gave Europeans a powerful tool of control over them.
Here, the visitors are incomprehensible to 20th century Americans. They can communicate in a very limited way as they consume natural resources while exchanging them for things that we clearly want, destroying our industrial capacity along the way. Not with any malevolent intent but unable to see how destructive this would become. (At least one colonial governor in the 18th century did recognize how firearms made the Indians dependent and bragged to London about his success.)
Imaginative and entertaining as all Simak novels are.
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