EconAir

The Mughal emperor Shah Alam hands a scroll to Robert Clive, the governor of Bengal, which transferred tax collecting rights in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to the East India Company.  Illustration: Benjamin West (1738–1820)/British Library INTRODUCTION   Founded in 1600, the English East India Company (EIC), like its Dutch equivalent the United Netherlands East India Company (VOC, from the Dutch initials) was an innovative new type of corporation. It was a model for the limited-liability, stockholder-owned and funded modern corporation. The EIC and the VOC were early prototypes for the modern multinational corporation. Originally created as a company to develop profitable long-distance trade, the EIC evolved into a political organization that controlled or dominated about two-thirds of the Indian subcontinent by the early 1800s. The EIC and the Navigation Acts were the starting points for England's naval dominance and colonial empire. The large increase in England's income and we...

OVERVIEW: In the future, what will be the relationship between central governments of nation-states and large corporations including multinational corporations (MNCs)? For strong central governments with authoritarian rulers the objective is power. Economic resources and institutions are a means to political objectives and personal wealth. They have the resources - police, law courts, tax audits, extortion, subsidies, contracts - to dominate and exploit private companies and shareholders. At best, political oversight; at worst, extortion, expropriation and prison or execution. Private companies develop and control technology, innovation, production and management of output. Much of the military technology in the United States and Europe is developed and produced by private companies with government contracts. Almost all of the undersea fiber optic cables that carry almost all of the global internet traffic is owned by private companies. New cables are being laid by private companies to...