The Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756 - 1833

by Huw Bowen

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.

Genres: History, Business, India, British Literature, Economics

320 pages, Hardcover

First published December 21, 2001

About the author

A specialist on British, economic, imperial, maritime, and political history, Huw Vaughan (H.V.) Bowen is Professor of Public History at Swansea University.

Reviews

[XXX · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book, while written on an interesting topic, manages to get at very few of the interesting questions while simultaneously taking a very British-centric view of the Company. In fact, aside from a small remark about the Company cutting weavers' wages, Indians and Company policy toward them hardly feature in the book at all.

The book has access to interesting data (e.g. records of stockholders) and historical records (e.g. reports) but does very little to get into the most interesting questions that such material could answer. For instance, it discusses the percentage of stockholders that were women or Scottish. But, in discussing the validity of accusations of corruption against the Company, merely states that it was largely not to blame (as per a historical report). No examples or anecdotes or, really, much detail by way of proof is given to support this (fairly important) claim.

Overall the book is a lost chance for illumination.