EconAir

William Dalrymple’s new book, The Anarchy: How a Corporation Replaced the Mughal Empire, 1756-1803, will be published next year by Bloomsbury & Knopf   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 P...

  Earliest known photograph of slaves and cotton, around 1850 Brigit Katz, Smithsonian Magazine, December 6, 2019 A New Nation, America from 1789 to 1860   If you study American history from 1789 to 1860 (just before the start of the Civil War), the political history is very complicated. But remember what caused most of this political conflict and uneasy compromises - the dynamic changes in the underlying economy. Two in particular – the spectacular increase in slave-produced cotton and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. They were related.   What is the Industrial Revolution? At its heart it is power-driven metal machinery producing huge quantities of goods. At first, the power was supplied by steam engines and water wheels. Later, in the 20 th  century, electricity. All of this used huge amounts of fossil fuels – first coal, later oil and natural gas were added.   A trend that continued from colonial times – the unusual population growth of America. Th...