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The Corporation That Changed the World: How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational

by Nick Robins

The Corporation That Changed the World: How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

This book offers a fascinating account of the forerunner of the modern multinational: the British East India Company (1600-1874). Nick Robins shows how the East India Company pioneered the model of the corporation that we see today. Its innovations included the shareholder model of ownership, and the administrative framework of the modern firm. Global in reach, it achieved market dominance in Asia, trailblazing the British Empire in the East. In the process, the company shocked its age with the scale of its executive malpractice, stock market excess and human rights abuse.

Offering a popular history of one of the world's most famous companies, Nick Robins shows what it teaches us about corporations today. Ultimately, the East India Company succumbed to popular protest and outright rebellion, first in the Boston Tea Party and then in the Indian Mutiny. For Robins, the Company's legacy shows how essential it is to break-up today's over-mighty corporations, introduce new legal duties on corporate executives and establish effective mechanisms to hold companies to account wherever they operate.

Book News Annotation:

The English East India Company, which came to economically rule over much of India during its 275-year existence, paralleled today's corporations in many important ways, according to the author, "with the Company outstripping Wal-Mart in terms of market power, Enron for corruption and Union Carbide for human devastation." His focus in this history of the Company is on its sorry social record and on the critics who sought to hold it accountable, including figures such as Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and British government officials. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Synopsis:

A popular history of the British East India Company and how it shaped the way corporations operate today.

Synopsis:

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.

Synopsis:

Subtitled, "The East India Company & The Imperial Gene".

About the Author

Nick Robins works in the City of London, running socially responsible investment funds. A historian by training, he has nearly 20 years experience in corporate responsibility issues, and writes widely for magazines such as Resurgence, the New Statesman and Ethical Corporation.

Table of Contents

Lists of Figures, Maps and Illustrations1 Introduction2 The Hidden Wound3 The Greatest Corporation in the World4 Out of the Shadows5 The Bengal Revolution6 The Great East Indian Crash7 Regulating the Company8 Justice will be Done9 A Mercantile Sovereign10 Unfinished BusinessAcknowledgements;References

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Peter Kinder, December 9, 2006 (view all comments by Peter Kinder)
A key member of Henderson's SRI team, Nick Robins is also an historian and gifted writer. This brief meditation on, perhaps, the single most important corporation the world has known illuminates the challenges of a globalising economy and the astonishing power of corporations to effect change across cultures and vast distances. In its 268 year history, The Honourable Company created vast wealth to its British shareholders, conquered much of the Indian subcontinent with its private army, contributed to the loss of the American colonies (remember the Boston Tea Party?), nearly lost the subcontinent in the Mutiny which then led to the establishment of the Raj.... The East India Company's foreign policy still affects relations between India and China and the West. And in every area -- from governance to ethics -- the experience of the East India Company anticipates today's proxy issues.

Disclosure: I reviewed an early draft of this book, and its author and I are friends.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780745325231
Subtitle:
How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational
Author:
Robins, Nick
Publisher:
Pluto Press (UK)
Subject:
India
Subject:
History
Subject:
World - Colonial Studies
Subject:
Europe - Great Britain - General
Subject:
Asia - India & South Asia
Edition Description:
Trade Paper
Publication Date:
May 2006
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
218
Dimensions:
848x544x45 65

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