HIST 3420 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Royal African Company, Crony Capitalism, Firman
3 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
The company was the incarnation of the worst form of imperialism and crony capitalism - it represents the exploitation and plunder of the indian subcontinent. The company"s entrepreneurial energy helped nurture the city of london and prepare the ground for britain"s economic success during the industrial revolution when trade, capitalism, and adventurism spurred prosperity. Gained more power the longer the company was in india. The company opened an entire sub-continent to economic and political development, with huge ramifications for india, britain, and the world. It played assorted and interchangeable roles that multinational corporations played in the early modern period: as mercantile firms, as political agents, as sovereign bodies, as international actors. East india company had an army of 250,000 soldiers, many of them indian sepoys. Was a sovereign state with the power to govern, wage wars, have its own domestic and foreign policies. There was haphazard attempts to trade with the indies independently.
