The English East India Company (EIC): Model for Future Multinational Corporations?
OVERVIEW: In the future, what will be the relationship between central governments (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, relations - to dominate and exploit private companies and shareholders. At best, political oversight; at worst, expropriation and prison or execution. United States Trump. China Business firms as instruments of political objectives Russia Dictator plus dependent oligarchs European Union Economic integration of sovereign national governments Less-developed countries Military and political leaders seizing power as a path to personal wealth and power. In some countries, including Pakistan and Egypt, the military owns or...