The English East India Company: Model for Future Multinational Corporations?
INTRODUCTION The English East India Company (EIC) was an innovative new type of corporation. It might be a model for how a multinational corporation could survive and prosper in an increasingly chaotic and hostile geopolitical world. HISTORIC BACKGROUND The creation of the EIC and its Dutch equivalent (the VOC) were part of the 400 year expansion of European power, trade, and influence. Much of the rest of the world became colonies, part of imperial empires. By 1600, both England and Holland had a wealthy merchant and shipping class, bankers, lots of capital (wealth) not tied up in land, and risk-takers. These categories overlapped. Both countries had limited monarchies. In England, the king and Parliament were about to begin a long struggle for power. In Holland , the monarch was mostly subservient to Holland's powerful and wealthy merchant class. The East India Company (EIC) was chartered in 1600 by Queen Elizabeth I to promote and monopolize English ...