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 was an early prototype for the modern multinational corporation. Originally created as a company to develop profitable long-distance trade, it 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 EIC can be seen as an early example of state capitalism. ...

        INTRODUCTION   In 1600, England had been an insular and agricultural nation, trading primarily with nearby northern Europe. By 1700, England’s commerce was complex and global, as London competed successfully with Amsterdam for American produce and Asian luxuries.      Alan Taylor,     American Colonies:  The Settling of North America, 258. England's rise to global power and wealth depended on new sources of trade in the 1600s. In Asia, this was a result of trade developed by the English East India Company (EIC). In America, new sources of trade were created by the English settlements in North America and the West Indies. Because of these developments, total tonnage carried in English ships doubled between 1660 and 1688. From Asia came pepper and other spices along with Indian cotton cloth. From America came tobacco and sugar. The rapid increase in sugar production after 1660 in the West Indies led to slave trade with Af...