EconAir

  INTRODUCTION   The English East India Company (EIC) was an innovative new type of corporation. It is a model for the modern limited-liability, stockholder-funded modern corporation. The EIC also illustrates that the prototype of the modern multinational corporation was created to develop global trade.   HISTORIC BACKGROUND   The creation of the English East India Company (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, substantial liquid 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....

  INTRODUCTION   Japan gets special consideration because it is further along the demographics declining population curve than any other large country. It has the oldest population (highest average age) in the world. It has one of the world's lowest birth rates. Unless there are major changes in healthcare technology, immigration, public policy, and birth rates, most industrialized countries will follow Japan down the path of declining and aging populations, and smaller labor forces. Japan's demographics and immigration have become major political issues. In the July 2025 elections, two right-wing parties made substantial gains against the long-ruling Liberal  Democracy Party (LDP). Two of their main issues were the rapid rise of immigration and the repeal of a 10% consumption tax used to pay for the rising costs of supporting the aged. Both parties appealed to young voters.  The LDP has nominated a candidate for prime minister who also takes a hard line on...

    Otto von Bismarck   The recent excellent histories on the factors leading up to World War One don’t go back far enough in time.   The main contention of this essay is that the road to World War One begins with the long-run consequences of the policies and strategies of Otto von Bismarck and the way he created the First German Reich in 1871.   The heart of the Treaty of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) was the “Holy Alliance,” an agreement of the monarchs of Russia, Prussia (later Germany) and Austria (later Austria-Hungary) to stamp out any return to the revolutionary ideals of the French Revolution. The three monarchies cooperated until the Crimean War.   The Crimean War (1853-56) was triggered by Russian attempts to expand its influence around the Black Sea, force the Ottoman Empire to allow Russian warships through the Dardanelles and increase influence in the Balkans as the Ottoman Empire retreated. To keep Russia bottled u...