Book Description
During 200 years the East India Company grew from a loose association of Elizabethan tradesmen into "the grandest society of merchants in the universe". As a commercial enterprise it came to control half the world's trade and as a political entity it administered an embryonic empire. Without it there would have been no British India and no British Empire. In a tapestry ranging from Southern Africa to north-west America, and from the reign of Elizabeth I to that of Victoria, bizarre locations and roguish personality abound. From Bombay to Singapore and Hong Kong the political geography of today is, in some respects, the result of the Company. This book looks at the history of the East India Company.
Customer Reviews:
A daunting task admirably done..........2006-02-22
Recording 200+ years of East India Company history is no small feat for, in such a work, this far-flung commercial enterprise produces a litany of ships, ports, merchandise, employees, currencies, costs, indigenous rulers, company directors, parliamentarians, military men, privateers, and scalawags. That John Keay kept it straight is admirable. That the reader can is even more so.
The Honourable Company is a witty, insightful and, at times, painstakingly detailed account of the East India Company's cyclical expansion, retraction, retrenchment, and re-expansion over the course of three centuries. From the island of St. Helena to Canton, China, Keay patiently plots the monopoly's course. Ever eager to highlight the irony, inanity, and ignominy characteristic of such an enterprise, Keay provides several humorous asides in addition to those moments when the reader can't but shake his head at these haughty, ill-informed, greedy and grasping monopolists.
Well-researched, well-written, and a delight to consume, The Honourable Company suffers only when the blander details of global trade begin to inhibit it's otherwise excellent pace. The sheer volume of material required to catalog an endeavor of this magnitude makes it difficult to entice the reader page after page. Yet, John Keay pulls it off smartly and for this The Honourable Company merits a rating of 4+ stars.
Tea, Silk, Spices and Stiff Upper Lips.......2003-03-31
The East India Company, which described itself as "the Grandest Society of Merchants in the Universe," controlled half the world's trade at its height. This grand book, obviously the subject of many years of research, often reads more like an adventure yarn than a book about a business, even the grandest in the universe. The Company, which received its Royal Charter on the last day of 1600, moved through a series of fits and starts, disasters and triumphs, as it moved through a turbulent 220 years of history. From its initial fumbling start on the obscure nutmeg island of Run, it eventually turned into a quasi-government ruling vast parts of India and the most important enterprise in the China trade. It outlasted absolute monarchy in Britain, and saw the rise of the modern corporation.
John Keay has done a masterful job of telling this story, but look at the material he has had to work with! The Honourable Company often seems to have been pretty dishonourable, characterized by ferocious infighting, both in the headquarters in London and overseas. The characters who set up trading operations in far-flung corners of the world appear to have been either indolent drunks or superhumans burning with ambition. There are enough pirates and battles and exotic names to please any reader. And the leitmotiv of British salesmen anxiously trying to unload tweed cloth to unidentifiable buyers in the tropics.
The East India Company, although a monopoly, had competition. It came from many sources, including the Dutch, the French and particularly from "interlopers," traders working on their own account. The Company also had to compete with its own employees who, paid a pittance, conducted business on their own accounts as well. The strength of this book is that it gives the impression of boundless activity, even when things went badly. Given the different locations the company operated in, and different local conditions, it is remarkable that the narrative flows as smoothly as it does.
The writing is often superb. No Imperial apologist, Mr. Keay often makes the point that historians have tended to look to the Company as a harbinger, almost the organizing idea, for the British Empire. This foreshadowing is strained. The Company men, to judge from those described in the book, were motivated primarily by greed and self-interest. Some, such as Warren Hastings, who became Governor-General in India and held the position for thirteen years, were genuinely fond of India. Hastings is a fascinating character and Keay's writing does him, and his colleagues, honour:
""The Great Moghul," as Hastings was called in Calcutta's first newspaper, stood alone, a sad and self-righteous Caesar, embattled but unbowed, solicitous but ruthless, fastidious but careless, lofty yet devious-a man, in short, crying out to be misunderstood. Contemporaries duly obliged; so has posterity."
With this kind of writing, I must recommend this book highly. Just have a bookmark available because it is necessary to keep flipping back and forth to the maps. Just where is Benkulen anyway?
Detailed, analytical and entertaining history.......2003-03-11
From the author of the impressive _India: A History_ comes this compact but consistently informative study of the English East India Company, from its origins in the last days of the sixteenth century to the first decades of the nineteenth. This is narrative history at its best, packed with detail, incident and striking characters. Keay fills his pages with entertaining curios and arresting anecdotes, ensuring that the human elements are never lost amid the sweep of history. The geographical and historical sweep is broad, and the focus does not remain unwaveringly upon the Company's servants, but takes in details of societies ranging from London to Japan.
For the student of the period, there is enough sharp analysis here to provide a useful overview/introduction to the issues of the period. For the general reader, there's a wonderful tale encompassing everything from early modern finance to a harem in Sumatra. Wonderful.
Book Description
This is a popular history of one of the world's most famous companies. Founded in 1600, the East India Company was the forerunner of the modern multinational. Starting life as a trader in Asian spices, the Company ended its days running Britain's Indian empire. In the process, it shocked its contemporaries with the scale of its violence, corruption and speculation.
This is the first-ever book to expose the Company's social record. Robins reveals a hidden story of tragedy and intrigue. War, famine, stock-market bubbles and even duels between rival executives are all to be found in this new account. For Robins, the Company's legacy provides compelling lessons on how to ensure the accountability of today's global business.
Customer Reviews:
Business by force........2007-01-03
Very well written, which is a rare accomplishment on somewhat dry topics. Brings forward or reminds the reader that graft and corruption is not new to modern business and government. A company that conquered a nation literally and with its private army. A good read.
Average customer rating:
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Trading Places: The East India Company and Asia
Anthony Farrington
Manufacturer: British Library
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ASIN: 0712347569 |
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- Excellent, well illustrated
- History that is Informative and Relevant
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The East India Company: Trade and Conquest from 1600
Antony Wild
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
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ASIN: 1585740594 |
Book Description
Here is a historical chronicle of the most powerful corporation in world history, beautifully illustrated with full-color paintings, photographs, and maps. Established by Royal Charter in 1600, the East India Company was, and remains to this day, the largest and most powerful multinational business the world has ever seen. It controlled over half the world's trade and a quarter of its population. It singlehandedly ruled India, raised its own army and navy, minted its own currency, and traded with every corner of the globe. It also trafficked in opium, greed, and brutal oppression, sowing the seeds that would lead to its downfall-and absorption by the British Crown.
The East India Company describes how "the Honourable Company" created its extraordinary trading empire by introducing an exotic cache of tea, silks, porcelain, cashmere, and spices to a luxury-starved England. It also explains how the company conducted its day-to-day business at home and in the East, through colorful figures such as Captain James Skinner and John Nicholson; how the opulent daily life of East India Company rulers amongst the ruled led to "the Mutiny"; and why India's first war of independence spelled an end not only to the company itself, but, eventually, to an entire empire.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent, well illustrated.......2005-05-26
This lavishly illustrated volume gives an excellent view of the East India Company - the experiences of the British in India, the spices and goods of interest to the West, and the history of the company over the centuries.
History that is Informative and Relevant.......2000-08-09
This book is deserving than more than just 5 stars.
As a historian myself, the biggest problem in expressing yourself is making "old" topics informative and interesting to modern generations. Antony Wild has succeeded beyond any scale of recognition in his book The East India Company: Trade and Conquest from 1600.
This book, which details the English East India Company's history will appeal to anyone with an interest in British, Indian, Asian, American, military, nautical, or commerical history-- it is that wide-ranging. This book is also a must-read for anyone interested or concerned over the so-called modern phenomenon of "globalization." After reading Wild's account, one can see that globalization has been around for nearly four hundred years, if not longer.
The English East India Company, acting under a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth I, sought entry into the Spice Trade in Asia. Soon, however, it found itself involved with Indian piece trade and trade from the Middle East and Arabia. Its trade interests in India eventually led to de facto conquest and colonization on that subcontinent-- all with the tacit support of the crown. The company reached into China and even North America-- it was East India Company tea that got dumped into Boston Harbor during the Tea Party.
The company exported and imported goods, laid the foundations for three important Indian cities, fought land wars and naval battles with other European merchant powers or local natives, and brought a host of new products and new words into the consciousness of the English-speaking world.
India proved to be the company's lasting legacy, and not always a positive one. However Wild provides a well-balanced account that does not paint the company as either completely ethical traders or imperialistic devils. No matter one's opinion, India proved to the company's (and Britain's) largest asset and also the cause for the company's eventual dissolution.
The book is well-illustrated and is an easy but very informative read. I would rank this amongst the top 10 books I have read in the last 5 years.
Book Description
Throws light on significant aspects of the Company's history. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MARITIME HISTORY The English East India Company was one of the most powerful commercial companies ever to have existed. It laid the foundations of the British Empire in South Asia and thus lies at the very heart of the interlinked histories of Britain and Asia. This first multi-disciplinary history of the Company to be published commemorates the four-hundredth anniversary of the founding of this unique and extraordinary institution. Historians of art, culture, cartography, empire, politics, the sea, and trade, explore the origins, operation, and influence of the Company as an organisation that remained firmly engaged in maritime commercial activity in many different spheres, even as it acted as a powerful agent of territorial expansion on the Indian subcontinent. H.V. BOWEN is senior lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Leicester; NIGEL RIGBY and MARGARETTE LINCOLN work in the research department of the National Maritime Museum, London.
Book Description
This volume is the first detailed study of what happened in Britain when the East India Company acquired a vast territorial empire in South Asia. Drawing on a mass of hitherto unused material contained in the Company's administrative and financial records, the book offers a reconstruction of the inner workings of the Company as it made the remarkable transition from business to empire during the late-eighteenth century. Huw Bowen profiles the company's stock holders and directors and examines how those in London adapted their methods, working practices, and policies to changing circumstances in India.
Book Description
A rich collection of primary materials, the multivolume Archives of Empire provides a documentary history of nineteenth-century British imperialism from the Indian subcontinent to the Suez Canal to southernmost Africa. Barbara Harlow and Mia Carter have carefully selected a diverse range of texts that track the debates over imperialism in the ranks of the military, the corridors of political power, the lobbies of missionary organizations, the halls of royal geographic and ethnographic societies, the boardrooms of trading companies, the editorial offices of major newspapers, and far-flung parts of the empire itself. Focusing on a particular region and historical period, each volume in Archives of Empire is organized into sections preceded by brief introductions. Documents including mercantile company charters, parliamentary records, explorers’ accounts, and political cartoons are complemented by timelines, maps, and bibligraphies. Unique resources for teachers and students, these books reveal the complexities of nineteenth-century colonialism and emphasize its enduring relevance to the âglobal marketsâ of the twenty-first century.
Tracing the beginnings of the British colonial enterprise in South Asia and the Middle East, From the Company to the Canal brings together key texts from the era of the privately owned British East India Company through the crises that led to the company’s takeover by the Crown in 1858. It ends with the momentous opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Government proclamations, military reports, and newspaper articles are included here alongside pieces by Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Benjamin Disraeli, and many others. A number of documents chronicle arguments between mercantilists and free trade advocates over the competing interests of the nation and the East India Company. Others provide accounts of imperial crisesâincluding the trial of Warren Hastings, the Indian Rebellion (Sepoy Mutiny), and the Arabi Uprisingâthat highlight the human, political, and economic costs of imperial domination and control.
Book Description
For nearly a century a massive Asian empire was administered by a privately owned company located half a world away. The turbulent story of England's Honourable East India Company and its rise to power is recounted in this lively and informative history of the company's past four hundred years. From 1600 to 1863 the East India Company prevailed against rival European companies and almost continual warfare to gradually win control of India and spearhead the Western penetration of China. The author goes beyond the company's commercial exploits, the scandals of the opium trade, and the stirring nineteenth-century Tea Clipper races to delve into the lives of its employees, East India's peculiar organizational structure, and the technical details of its ships, the lordly East Indiamen. She also covers the lesser-known aspects of the enterprise, such as the company's private navy, and its contribution to the development of early steam navigation.
Thoroughly researched, generously illustrated, and recently updated, this account reflects both the social and maritime history of the East India Company and its contributions to the expansion of the British Empire.
Customer Reviews:
Best book I've read on the subject!.......1997-05-09
Lords of the East offers a richly illustrated, densely detailed text describing the East India Company from many aspects as it evolved from a handful of adventurers to the backbone of an empire. Everything you wanted to know, from the seamen to the captains, from the ships and yards to the voyages, from the directors and London politics to the Mogul and the Marathas, is here in a slender, handsome volume
Average customer rating:
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A Biographical Index of the East India Maritime Service Officers, 1600-1834
Manufacturer: The British Library
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Revenue and Reform: The Indian Problem in British Politics 17571773
H. V. Bowen
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Revenue and Reform offers a reappraisal of British imperial politics in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. It is traditional to regard the 1760s as a time when British politicians were preoccupied with the crises that eventually led to the outbreak of the American War of Independence. In this book, however, it is the Indian problem that is examined. Politicians struggled to come to terms with the East India Company's unexpected acquisition of territory and great wealth in Bengal, and they endeavored to formulate policy related to many new and unfamiliar issues. New light is shed on debate about revenue collection, territorial rights, diplomacy, justice, and administrative reform in order to illustrate the central theme of the book: the gradual and reluctant assumption of responsibility by ministers for the Indian empire.
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