The Corporation That Changed the World

The English East India Company was the mother of the modern multinational. Its trading empire encircled the globe, importing Asian luxuries such as spices, textiles and teas. But it also conquered much of India with its private army and broke open China's markets with opium. The Company's practices shocked its contemporaries and still reverberate today. The Corporation That Changed the World is the first book to reveal the Company's enduring legacy as a corporation. This expanded edition explores how the four forces of scale, technology, finance and regulation drove its spectacular rise and fall. For decades, the Company was simply too big to fail, and stock market bubbles, famines, drug-running and even duels between rival executives are to be found in this new account. For Robins, the Company's story provides vital lessons on both the role of corporations in world history and the steps required to make global business accountable today. A powerful analysis of the rise and fall of the British East India Company, a private company that conquered a subcontinent and subjugated an entire people. -- Huw Bowen, Professor of Imperial and Maritime History, Swansea University Elegantly written and sharply argued, Nick Robins' gripping account of the rise and fall of the English East India Company brings to life a crucial episode in the history of globalization. -- Sankar Muthu, Princeton University At a time when every new business crisis is greeted with cries of 'We never saw that coming', Nick Robins demonstrates the importance of understanding history. The East India Company might have been relegated to the dustbin of history, but Robins digs it out, looks into the nooks and crannies, and comes up with plenty of insights that today's managers will find rich and rewarding. -- Mick Blowfield, Senior Research Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Oxford University, co-author of Corporate Responsibility (2011) Nick Robins' history of astonishing corporate greed, excess and abuse of power is brilliantly told, and perfectly timed. -- Isabel Hilton, Editor of China Dialogue The book is a brilliant, important contribution to an understanding of development and poverty. -- Mari Marcel Thekaekara, New InternationalistAcknowledgements Lists of Tables, Figures, Maps and Illustrations Chronology Introduction 1 The Hidden Wound 2 This Imperious Company 3 Out of the Shadows 4 The Bengal Revolution 5 The Great East Indian Crash 6 Regulating the Company 7 Justice Will be Done 8 The Toxic Exchange 9 A Skulking Power 10 Unfinished Business Epilogue Notes Index