Christopher Anvil's "Uplift the Savage" (short story, free)

There is a behavior sometimes seen among small children: If you want the child to do something, you have to tell him not to do it; rebellion to authority shows up rather early.

This story takes this idea to absurd level. Star-faring human colonists want to uplift the savage natives of an alien world so in time they'll produce something worth trading! So natives get treated as children: they're effectively told they won't be given certain things, to motivate them to make the efforts to acquire them!

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, March 1968.
Download full text from Baen CD. [via Bill Garthright @ ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Christopher Anvil.