Between Monopoly and Free Trade: The English East India Company, 1600–1757

by Emily Erikson

The English East India Company was one of the most powerful and enduring organizations in history. Between Monopoly and Free Trade locates the source of that success in the innovative policy by which the Company's Court of Directors granted employees the right to pursue their own commercial interests while in the firm’s employ. Exploring trade network dynamics, decision-making processes, and ports and organizational context, Emily Erikson demonstrates why the English East India Company was a dominant force in the expansion of trade between Europe and Asia, and she sheds light on the related problems of why England experienced rapid economic development and how the relationship between Europe and Asia shifted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Though the Company held a monopoly on English overseas trade to Asia, the Court of Directors extended the right to trade in Asia to their employees, creating an unusual situation in which employees worked both for themselves and for the Company as overseas merchants. Building on the organizational infrastructure of the Company and the sophisticated commercial institutions of the markets of the East, employees constructed a cohesive internal network of peer communications that directed English trading ships during their voyages. This network integrated Company operations, encouraged innovation, and increased the Company’s flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness to local circumstance.

Between Monopoly and Free Trade highlights the dynamic potential of social networks in the early modern era.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, History

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Emily Erikson is the Joseph C. Fox Academic Director of the Fox International Fellowship and professor of sociology and the school of management.

Reviews

[David Tran · Rating 5 out of 5]

An illuminating exploration of the place of social network analysis in historical sociology and the social sciences writ-large

[Robert Y. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erikson expounds upon trade networks, corporate decision-making, and ideas of economic development in her study of the British East India Company. I found her insights engaging, as she approached the primary and secondary sources of the Company from a sociological perspective. An emphasis on the role of networks and institutions were the focus of her arguments. She presents the Company as a decentralized organization that amassed profits for centuries because of its ability to adapt in an evolving world economy.

[John Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read a free copy through the NYPL and Project Muse. Very dense, detailed discussion on the role the British India company played in creating modern capitalism and also how coming into contact with Asian civil society changed Europe and created conditions for books like the Wealth of Nations to be written.

[Benji · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, well-written analytical sociology using network analysis to demonstrate how private trade combined with compatible Eastern ports and institutions gave rise to the growth and success of the English East India Company.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written, academic book.