William Bain
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199260263
- eISBN:
- 9780191600975
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199260265.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The idea of trusteeship in international society originates in late 18th century British India. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the emergence of trusteeship as a justification of political ...
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The idea of trusteeship in international society originates in late 18th century British India. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the emergence of trusteeship as a justification of political power in territories administered by the East India Company. The chapter has five sections: From Merchant to Sovereign in British India; The Claim to Rule; The Relations of Ruler and Subject; The Purpose of the Office of Government; and Providing Protection, Directing Improvement.Less
The idea of trusteeship in international society originates in late 18th century British India. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the emergence of trusteeship as a justification of political power in territories administered by the East India Company. The chapter has five sections: From Merchant to Sovereign in British India; The Claim to Rule; The Relations of Ruler and Subject; The Purpose of the Office of Government; and Providing Protection, Directing Improvement.
Joanne Punzo Waghorne
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195156638
- eISBN:
- 9780199785292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156638.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
The attention given to the 19th century in contemporary postcolonial studies skews the discussion of modernization and religion toward ideologies not materialities. Refocusing on the late 16th ...
More
The attention given to the 19th century in contemporary postcolonial studies skews the discussion of modernization and religion toward ideologies not materialities. Refocusing on the late 16th century during the rise of the new world system shows Hindu temples emerging as key institutions in the resettlement and reorientation of Indian Hindus in the new global economy. The key players were classic bourgeoisie, a multi-caste group of “merchants” in the East India Company. These merchants resembled their British counterparts in their rising status within their respective societies at home and their shared society in “Blacktown”. Through the use of archival maps, a reconfiguration of the Hindus temples becomes visible within this new urban space. The pattern of deities and the basic styles of their new homes — eclectic and duplicated — prefigure contemporary temples built within Chennai but also abroad in this new era of geo-culture and geo-economics (Wallerstein).Less
The attention given to the 19th century in contemporary postcolonial studies skews the discussion of modernization and religion toward ideologies not materialities. Refocusing on the late 16th century during the rise of the new world system shows Hindu temples emerging as key institutions in the resettlement and reorientation of Indian Hindus in the new global economy. The key players were classic bourgeoisie, a multi-caste group of “merchants” in the East India Company. These merchants resembled their British counterparts in their rising status within their respective societies at home and their shared society in “Blacktown”. Through the use of archival maps, a reconfiguration of the Hindus temples becomes visible within this new urban space. The pattern of deities and the basic styles of their new homes — eclectic and duplicated — prefigure contemporary temples built within Chennai but also abroad in this new era of geo-culture and geo-economics (Wallerstein).
Mandy Sadan
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265550
- eISBN:
- 9780191760341
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265550.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter discusses the encounters between the British East India Company in early nineteenth-century Assam and Singpho communities who had expanded their territorial possessions in the region ...
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This chapter discusses the encounters between the British East India Company in early nineteenth-century Assam and Singpho communities who had expanded their territorial possessions in the region because of the regional disorder of the previous century. These encounters are placed in the context of changes in the nature of the state in Asia as well as in European trading empires, raising questions about the relevance of a simple dichotomy between notions of ‘state’ and ‘non-state’ at this time in this region. The effects of the nascent Assam tea industry are discussed in relation to Singpho migration and internal dynamics of kinship relations and the creation of local hierarchies. The failure of the Company to develop local political institutions that could map onto Singpho-Jinghpaw political culture is explored through the Singpho revolt of 1843 and the effect of this in creating a local outcome of political exclusion.Less
This chapter discusses the encounters between the British East India Company in early nineteenth-century Assam and Singpho communities who had expanded their territorial possessions in the region because of the regional disorder of the previous century. These encounters are placed in the context of changes in the nature of the state in Asia as well as in European trading empires, raising questions about the relevance of a simple dichotomy between notions of ‘state’ and ‘non-state’ at this time in this region. The effects of the nascent Assam tea industry are discussed in relation to Singpho migration and internal dynamics of kinship relations and the creation of local hierarchies. The failure of the Company to develop local political institutions that could map onto Singpho-Jinghpaw political culture is explored through the Singpho revolt of 1843 and the effect of this in creating a local outcome of political exclusion.
P. J. MARSHALL
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199226665
- eISBN:
- 9780191706813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226665.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Political History
Anglo-French worldwide rivalry extended to India, where both nations traded through their East India companies. This rivalry, which had led to almost continuous warfare since the 1740s, merged into ...
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Anglo-French worldwide rivalry extended to India, where both nations traded through their East India companies. This rivalry, which had led to almost continuous warfare since the 1740s, merged into the rivalry of the Indian powers that were emerging as independent successor states from the breakdown of the Mughal Empire. The Europeans formed alliances with Indian princes. These alliances gave the British and French a potentially commanding influence over some of the Indian states. This influence led to total British control over Bengal in the events that followed the overthrow of the local ruler at the battle of Plassey in 1757. In the south, the British were able to defeat the French, but their position was weaker. Even so, by the end of the war the British East India Company had become a major territorial power in India, closely allied to the British state.Less
Anglo-French worldwide rivalry extended to India, where both nations traded through their East India companies. This rivalry, which had led to almost continuous warfare since the 1740s, merged into the rivalry of the Indian powers that were emerging as independent successor states from the breakdown of the Mughal Empire. The Europeans formed alliances with Indian princes. These alliances gave the British and French a potentially commanding influence over some of the Indian states. This influence led to total British control over Bengal in the events that followed the overthrow of the local ruler at the battle of Plassey in 1757. In the south, the British were able to defeat the French, but their position was weaker. Even so, by the end of the war the British East India Company had become a major territorial power in India, closely allied to the British state.
Kama Maclean
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195338942
- eISBN:
- 9780199867110
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195338942.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter draws attention to the fort of Allahabad, built by Akbar at the sangam next to the mela grounds, and charts the tensions that characterized the coexistence of these highly charged arenas ...
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This chapter draws attention to the fort of Allahabad, built by Akbar at the sangam next to the mela grounds, and charts the tensions that characterized the coexistence of these highly charged arenas of devotional expression and military security. Drawing on oral histories and Hindu traditions relating to the sangam site and the fort, the chapter describes how locals have understood and incorporated the presence of the fort, and the British, into their devotional landscape. It also delineates the changes in pilgrimage activity in the 18th century, as the East India Company inserted itself into key pilgrimage cities in north India, attempting to manage pilgrimage as a matter of diplomacy and limiting pilgrim access to a key shrine in the fort, while profiting handsomely from pilgrim taxes. This intervention was resented and resisted by pilgrimage priests in Allahabad, Prayagwals, who traditionally played an important role in the management of piety at the sangam in Allahabad. This reached its height when the Prayagwals lent their support to the rebellion in 1857, in which the fort of Allahabad, as the base of British military organization and refuge, was a key site.Less
This chapter draws attention to the fort of Allahabad, built by Akbar at the sangam next to the mela grounds, and charts the tensions that characterized the coexistence of these highly charged arenas of devotional expression and military security. Drawing on oral histories and Hindu traditions relating to the sangam site and the fort, the chapter describes how locals have understood and incorporated the presence of the fort, and the British, into their devotional landscape. It also delineates the changes in pilgrimage activity in the 18th century, as the East India Company inserted itself into key pilgrimage cities in north India, attempting to manage pilgrimage as a matter of diplomacy and limiting pilgrim access to a key shrine in the fort, while profiting handsomely from pilgrim taxes. This intervention was resented and resisted by pilgrimage priests in Allahabad, Prayagwals, who traditionally played an important role in the management of piety at the sangam in Allahabad. This reached its height when the Prayagwals lent their support to the rebellion in 1857, in which the fort of Allahabad, as the base of British military organization and refuge, was a key site.
Emily Erikson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159065
- eISBN:
- 9781400850334
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159065.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter presents the volume's main argument: that a decentralized organizational structure—constructed through the combination of private and Company trade—was the central pillar of the English ...
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This chapter presents the volume's main argument: that a decentralized organizational structure—constructed through the combination of private and Company trade—was the central pillar of the English East India Company's continued expansion and adaptability over nearly two centuries as a predominantly commercial operation. It delves into the history of the English East India Company and the reasons for its success. Additionally, the chapter also looks at alternative explanations for the success of the company. Finally, this chapter lays out the study's theoretical approach: by considering the micro-level behavioral patterns and opportunity structures that allowed for the development and transformation of the English Company and, through it, larger patterns of global trade.Less
This chapter presents the volume's main argument: that a decentralized organizational structure—constructed through the combination of private and Company trade—was the central pillar of the English East India Company's continued expansion and adaptability over nearly two centuries as a predominantly commercial operation. It delves into the history of the English East India Company and the reasons for its success. Additionally, the chapter also looks at alternative explanations for the success of the company. Finally, this chapter lays out the study's theoretical approach: by considering the micro-level behavioral patterns and opportunity structures that allowed for the development and transformation of the English Company and, through it, larger patterns of global trade.
William Bain
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199260263
- eISBN:
- 9780191600975
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199260265.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The international administration of troubled states—whether in Bosnia, Kosovo, or East Timor—has seen a return to the principle of trusteeship: i.e. situations in which some form of international ...
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The international administration of troubled states—whether in Bosnia, Kosovo, or East Timor—has seen a return to the principle of trusteeship: i.e. situations in which some form of international supervision is required in a particular territory in order both to maintain order and to foster the norms and practices of fair self‐government. This book rescues the normative discourse of trusteeship from the obscurity into which it has fallen since decolonization. It traces the development of trusteeship from its emergence out of debates concerning the misrule of the East India Company (Ch. 2), to its internationalization in imperial Africa (Ch. 3), to its institutionalization in the League of Nations mandates system (Ch. 4) and in the UN trusteeship system, and to the destruction of its legitimacy by the ideas of self‐determination and human equality (Ch. 5). The book brings this rich historical experience to bear on the dilemmas posed by the resurrection of trusteeship after the end of the cold war (Ch. 6) and, in the context of contemporary world problems, explores the obligations that attach to preponderant power and the limits that should be observed in exercising that power for the sake of global good. In Ch. 7, the book concludes by arguing that trusteeship remains fundamentally at odds with the ideas of human dignity and equality.Less
The international administration of troubled states—whether in Bosnia, Kosovo, or East Timor—has seen a return to the principle of trusteeship: i.e. situations in which some form of international supervision is required in a particular territory in order both to maintain order and to foster the norms and practices of fair self‐government. This book rescues the normative discourse of trusteeship from the obscurity into which it has fallen since decolonization. It traces the development of trusteeship from its emergence out of debates concerning the misrule of the East India Company (Ch. 2), to its internationalization in imperial Africa (Ch. 3), to its institutionalization in the League of Nations mandates system (Ch. 4) and in the UN trusteeship system, and to the destruction of its legitimacy by the ideas of self‐determination and human equality (Ch. 5). The book brings this rich historical experience to bear on the dilemmas posed by the resurrection of trusteeship after the end of the cold war (Ch. 6) and, in the context of contemporary world problems, explores the obligations that attach to preponderant power and the limits that should be observed in exercising that power for the sake of global good. In Ch. 7, the book concludes by arguing that trusteeship remains fundamentally at odds with the ideas of human dignity and equality.
P. J. MARSHALL
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199226665
- eISBN:
- 9780191706813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226665.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Political History
The rapid growth of British territorial power in India thrust responsibility for ruling millions of people on the East India Company, a trading body seemingly quite unfit for such tasks. Yet to place ...
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The rapid growth of British territorial power in India thrust responsibility for ruling millions of people on the East India Company, a trading body seemingly quite unfit for such tasks. Yet to place India under the immediate control of the British state rather than the Company was a proposition repugnant to most eighteenth century opinion. It was feared that a state takeover of India's supposed wealth would upset the balance of the British constitution. State intervention and periodic legislation to attempt to regulate the Company and make it more fit for its responsibilities were, however, inescapable. At home the national government established its power to supervise Indian affairs, while a Company civil service evolved in Bengal capable of engaging with the problems of Indian administration. At the same time the Company developed a large army comparable to that of the crown. It was becoming an instrument of empire subordinate to the British state.Less
The rapid growth of British territorial power in India thrust responsibility for ruling millions of people on the East India Company, a trading body seemingly quite unfit for such tasks. Yet to place India under the immediate control of the British state rather than the Company was a proposition repugnant to most eighteenth century opinion. It was feared that a state takeover of India's supposed wealth would upset the balance of the British constitution. State intervention and periodic legislation to attempt to regulate the Company and make it more fit for its responsibilities were, however, inescapable. At home the national government established its power to supervise Indian affairs, while a Company civil service evolved in Bengal capable of engaging with the problems of Indian administration. At the same time the Company developed a large army comparable to that of the crown. It was becoming an instrument of empire subordinate to the British state.
H.V. Bowen
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205630
- eISBN:
- 9780191676710
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205630.003.0024
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
The revolution that had entirely recast the East India Company’s position in India served only to foreshadow a much longer revolution in attitudes towards the new Empire of the East. Several distinct ...
More
The revolution that had entirely recast the East India Company’s position in India served only to foreshadow a much longer revolution in attitudes towards the new Empire of the East. Several distinct strands were evident within the broad patchwork of Indian issues brought before the British public after 1765, and in different ways they each illustrated the fact that the possession of a new territorial Empire represented much more than the uncomplicated extension of metropolitan influence into another sphere of overseas activity. By 1770, there was still widespread ignorance about many aspects of Indian society and culture, but informed opinion now recognized that the Company’s overseas possessions were no longer distant Imperial outposts that contributed little to the well-being of the mother country. By the beginning of the 1780s, other aspects of the British relationship with India were also being reassessed. The metropolitan uncertainties and anxieties about the Indian Empire that had been so evident during the 1770s and 1780s were gradually replaced by a general sense of optimism about the future.Less
The revolution that had entirely recast the East India Company’s position in India served only to foreshadow a much longer revolution in attitudes towards the new Empire of the East. Several distinct strands were evident within the broad patchwork of Indian issues brought before the British public after 1765, and in different ways they each illustrated the fact that the possession of a new territorial Empire represented much more than the uncomplicated extension of metropolitan influence into another sphere of overseas activity. By 1770, there was still widespread ignorance about many aspects of Indian society and culture, but informed opinion now recognized that the Company’s overseas possessions were no longer distant Imperial outposts that contributed little to the well-being of the mother country. By the beginning of the 1780s, other aspects of the British relationship with India were also being reassessed. The metropolitan uncertainties and anxieties about the Indian Empire that had been so evident during the 1770s and 1780s were gradually replaced by a general sense of optimism about the future.
P. J. MARSHALL
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199226665
- eISBN:
- 9780191706813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226665.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Political History
Early British rule in India was built on Indian foundations. In Bengal the British were able to build on the foundations of a well-established state and a flourishing economy. Above all, the new East ...
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Early British rule in India was built on Indian foundations. In Bengal the British were able to build on the foundations of a well-established state and a flourishing economy. Above all, the new East India Company rulers could tap Bengal's wealth through a system of taxation collected from the countryside. The essential task of early British administration was to enforce taxation. This enabled the Company to maintain a large army in Bengal, both to protect their interests there and to safeguard their other major Indian settlements, Madras and Bombay, which had only limited resources of taxation and were drawn into largely unsuccessful conflicts with strong neighbouring Indian states. British aspirations to empire in India in the later eighteenth century depended on Bengal.Less
Early British rule in India was built on Indian foundations. In Bengal the British were able to build on the foundations of a well-established state and a flourishing economy. Above all, the new East India Company rulers could tap Bengal's wealth through a system of taxation collected from the countryside. The essential task of early British administration was to enforce taxation. This enabled the Company to maintain a large army in Bengal, both to protect their interests there and to safeguard their other major Indian settlements, Madras and Bombay, which had only limited resources of taxation and were drawn into largely unsuccessful conflicts with strong neighbouring Indian states. British aspirations to empire in India in the later eighteenth century depended on Bengal.
Brian K. Pennington
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195166552
- eISBN:
- 9780199835690
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195166558.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Alongside the development of missionary discourses about Hinduism, Orientalists in the employ of the East India Company derived their own sets of idioms and tropes to represent Hindu traditions. ...
More
Alongside the development of missionary discourses about Hinduism, Orientalists in the employ of the East India Company derived their own sets of idioms and tropes to represent Hindu traditions. Founded by Sir William Jones as an advertisement for the beauty and antiquity of Indian civilizations, and later headed by such eminent scholars as Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Horace Hayman Wilson, the Asiatic Society and its journal the Asiatic Researches displayed from their beginning a close alliance with the designs of the colonial state. As the evolving state discarded Orientalist policies that sought rapprochement with and accommodation of Indian traditions, the journal itself came to reflect a colder conquest of the minds and territories of Indian subjects. A conceptual systematization of Hinduism parallel to that seen among evangelical missionaries is evident in this journal, but what distinguishes the imagination of British Orientalism is an enchantment with the natural world of India, whose profuse and lush flora and fauna functioned as tropes for religion in India as well. An initial fascination with the apparently self-multiplying, polymorphic pantheon and mythology of Hindu India reflected a similar scientific wonder among the Society’s naturalists. Just as that wonder would give way to a quest for mastery, the officials of the colonial state who authored the articles for the Researches demonstrated their own growing sense of intellectual command and moral superiority over what they came increasingly to identify as Hinduism.Less
Alongside the development of missionary discourses about Hinduism, Orientalists in the employ of the East India Company derived their own sets of idioms and tropes to represent Hindu traditions. Founded by Sir William Jones as an advertisement for the beauty and antiquity of Indian civilizations, and later headed by such eminent scholars as Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Horace Hayman Wilson, the Asiatic Society and its journal the Asiatic Researches displayed from their beginning a close alliance with the designs of the colonial state. As the evolving state discarded Orientalist policies that sought rapprochement with and accommodation of Indian traditions, the journal itself came to reflect a colder conquest of the minds and territories of Indian subjects. A conceptual systematization of Hinduism parallel to that seen among evangelical missionaries is evident in this journal, but what distinguishes the imagination of British Orientalism is an enchantment with the natural world of India, whose profuse and lush flora and fauna functioned as tropes for religion in India as well. An initial fascination with the apparently self-multiplying, polymorphic pantheon and mythology of Hindu India reflected a similar scientific wonder among the Society’s naturalists. Just as that wonder would give way to a quest for mastery, the officials of the colonial state who authored the articles for the Researches demonstrated their own growing sense of intellectual command and moral superiority over what they came increasingly to identify as Hinduism.
P. J. MARSHALL
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199226665
- eISBN:
- 9780191706813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226665.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Political History
‘Empire’ in this book is interpreted as the imposition of rule by a state over territory and people overseas. In the mid-eighteenth century, the British state greatly increased its ambitions to make ...
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‘Empire’ in this book is interpreted as the imposition of rule by a state over territory and people overseas. In the mid-eighteenth century, the British state greatly increased its ambitions to make its claims to rule overseas effective. By then the British state was quite a formidable one by contemporary standards. It had a high capacity to raise money by taxes and borrowing to enable it to wage war on land and sea. Its ability to supervise the administration of overseas affairs was less developed. American and West Indian colonies were largely self-governing and British interests in India were in the hands of the chartered East India Company. The stresses of the Seven Years War brought about strong pressures for increasing the role of the state in the management of overseas possessions.Less
‘Empire’ in this book is interpreted as the imposition of rule by a state over territory and people overseas. In the mid-eighteenth century, the British state greatly increased its ambitions to make its claims to rule overseas effective. By then the British state was quite a formidable one by contemporary standards. It had a high capacity to raise money by taxes and borrowing to enable it to wage war on land and sea. Its ability to supervise the administration of overseas affairs was less developed. American and West Indian colonies were largely self-governing and British interests in India were in the hands of the chartered East India Company. The stresses of the Seven Years War brought about strong pressures for increasing the role of the state in the management of overseas possessions.
P. J. Marshall
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205623
- eISBN:
- 9780191676703
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205623.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an ancient pattern of long-distance trade between Asia and Europe grew greatly in scale. The demand for Asian imports, especially in western Europe, ...
More
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an ancient pattern of long-distance trade between Asia and Europe grew greatly in scale. The demand for Asian imports, especially in western Europe, grew with increased purchasing power among certain sections of the population. New supplies of bullion from America gave European merchants the means with which to buy more Asian goods. The opening up of the route round the Cape of Good Hope enabled an ever-increasing volume of Asian goods to be transported to Europe at reduced cost and with a reasonable reliability. Finally, commercial organizations evolved which proved themselves capable of effectively transacting trade on a large scale over great distances. The English East India Company was one of these organizations. At the end of the seventeenth century, it was set to become the most successful of the European traders operating in Asia.Less
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an ancient pattern of long-distance trade between Asia and Europe grew greatly in scale. The demand for Asian imports, especially in western Europe, grew with increased purchasing power among certain sections of the population. New supplies of bullion from America gave European merchants the means with which to buy more Asian goods. The opening up of the route round the Cape of Good Hope enabled an ever-increasing volume of Asian goods to be transported to Europe at reduced cost and with a reasonable reliability. Finally, commercial organizations evolved which proved themselves capable of effectively transacting trade on a large scale over great distances. The English East India Company was one of these organizations. At the end of the seventeenth century, it was set to become the most successful of the European traders operating in Asia.
Philip J. Stern
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195393736
- eISBN:
- 9780199896837
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393736.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History, British and Irish Early Modern History
Mirroring its predecessor, this chapter follows the political challenges the Company faced in Britain after 1688. As the Company was expanding in fits and starts in Asia, it was increasingly coming ...
More
Mirroring its predecessor, this chapter follows the political challenges the Company faced in Britain after 1688. As the Company was expanding in fits and starts in Asia, it was increasingly coming under assault in England. Chapter 7 argues that the attack the Company faced by its rivals in England and Scotland, particularly the English Parliament, in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution was fundamentally a dispute not only over political economy but the proper nature of colonial sovereignty. Following the contours and languages of this debate, this chapter argues that the attack on the Company in Parliament and the rise of two potent rivals, a new English East India Company and a Scottish East India Company (also known as the “Darien” Company) were critical in laying the groundwork for the erosion of the Company’s political independence and its incorporation into the British state and empire in the eighteenth century. That debate was also crucial in establishing a perceived link between the Company and the ousted Stuart regime that had a lasting impact on its historiographical legacy.Less
Mirroring its predecessor, this chapter follows the political challenges the Company faced in Britain after 1688. As the Company was expanding in fits and starts in Asia, it was increasingly coming under assault in England. Chapter 7 argues that the attack the Company faced by its rivals in England and Scotland, particularly the English Parliament, in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution was fundamentally a dispute not only over political economy but the proper nature of colonial sovereignty. Following the contours and languages of this debate, this chapter argues that the attack on the Company in Parliament and the rise of two potent rivals, a new English East India Company and a Scottish East India Company (also known as the “Darien” Company) were critical in laying the groundwork for the erosion of the Company’s political independence and its incorporation into the British state and empire in the eighteenth century. That debate was also crucial in establishing a perceived link between the Company and the ousted Stuart regime that had a lasting impact on its historiographical legacy.
Ron Harris
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691150772
- eISBN:
- 9780691185804
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150772.003.0012
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter focuses on the English East India Company (EIC). In September 1599, a group of London merchants held a number of meetings that turned out to be the founding meetings of the EIC. It ...
More
This chapter focuses on the English East India Company (EIC). In September 1599, a group of London merchants held a number of meetings that turned out to be the founding meetings of the EIC. It describes two parallel tracks—one for obtaining a royal charter that would incorporate the promoters as a corporate entity and permit them to enter trade with new territories, and the other for raising equity capital for voyages to the East Indies from a large number of passive investors. By employing this dual track, the promoters of the EIC coupled the familiar legal structure of the corporation with the less familiar element of joint stock. In contemporary constitutional terms, incorporation was considered an essential component of the monarch's exclusive and voluntary prerogative to create and grant dignities, jurisdictions, liberties, exemptions, and franchises. The chapter covers how EIC was incorporated in its first charter for a period of fifteen years, ending on December 31, 1614.Less
This chapter focuses on the English East India Company (EIC). In September 1599, a group of London merchants held a number of meetings that turned out to be the founding meetings of the EIC. It describes two parallel tracks—one for obtaining a royal charter that would incorporate the promoters as a corporate entity and permit them to enter trade with new territories, and the other for raising equity capital for voyages to the East Indies from a large number of passive investors. By employing this dual track, the promoters of the EIC coupled the familiar legal structure of the corporation with the less familiar element of joint stock. In contemporary constitutional terms, incorporation was considered an essential component of the monarch's exclusive and voluntary prerogative to create and grant dignities, jurisdictions, liberties, exemptions, and franchises. The chapter covers how EIC was incorporated in its first charter for a period of fifteen years, ending on December 31, 1614.
Emily Erikson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159065
- eISBN:
- 9781400850334
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159065.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter undertakes a comparative analysis of the organizational characteristics of the English East India Company, highlighting the firm's record of sustained innovation through the ...
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This chapter undertakes a comparative analysis of the organizational characteristics of the English East India Company, highlighting the firm's record of sustained innovation through the incorporation of new markets, and the extent to which this may be explained by the degree of militarization in the Company, relations with the state, and the management of employees' private trade. While setting up a comparative argument for why individual-level trading decisions (associated with the private trade) are important to understanding the differences between the English and other East India companies, this chapter also provides the organizational background necessary to understanding why employees of the English Company would engage in certain patterns of behavior.Less
This chapter undertakes a comparative analysis of the organizational characteristics of the English East India Company, highlighting the firm's record of sustained innovation through the incorporation of new markets, and the extent to which this may be explained by the degree of militarization in the Company, relations with the state, and the management of employees' private trade. While setting up a comparative argument for why individual-level trading decisions (associated with the private trade) are important to understanding the differences between the English and other East India companies, this chapter also provides the organizational background necessary to understanding why employees of the English Company would engage in certain patterns of behavior.
P. J. MARSHALL
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199226665
- eISBN:
- 9780191706813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226665.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Political History
At the end of the Seven Years War Britain acquired territory from its defeated enemies. Colonies settled by the French in Canada and in the West Indies, notably the island of Grenada, came under ...
More
At the end of the Seven Years War Britain acquired territory from its defeated enemies. Colonies settled by the French in Canada and in the West Indies, notably the island of Grenada, came under British rule, as did huge tracts of the North American interior, almost exclusively inhabited by Native Americans. At the same time the East India Company became the ruler of densely populated provinces in India. These acquisitions raised fundamental questions about imperial governance. The models of the ‘old’ empire seemed to be irrelevant. The new peoples were French Catholics, Native Americans, or Indian Hindus or Muslims. British liberty seemed to be alien to them. They must be governed in new ways, which tolerated diverse religious principles, recognised alien legal systems and did not create inappropriate representative institutions for those unused to British liberty. How this should be done aroused vigorous debate.Less
At the end of the Seven Years War Britain acquired territory from its defeated enemies. Colonies settled by the French in Canada and in the West Indies, notably the island of Grenada, came under British rule, as did huge tracts of the North American interior, almost exclusively inhabited by Native Americans. At the same time the East India Company became the ruler of densely populated provinces in India. These acquisitions raised fundamental questions about imperial governance. The models of the ‘old’ empire seemed to be irrelevant. The new peoples were French Catholics, Native Americans, or Indian Hindus or Muslims. British liberty seemed to be alien to them. They must be governed in new ways, which tolerated diverse religious principles, recognised alien legal systems and did not create inappropriate representative institutions for those unused to British liberty. How this should be done aroused vigorous debate.
Philip J. Stern
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195393736
- eISBN:
- 9780199896837
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393736.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This book rethinks the nature of the early English East India Company as a form of polity and corporate sovereign well before its supposed transformation into a state and empire in the mid-eighteenth ...
More
This book rethinks the nature of the early English East India Company as a form of polity and corporate sovereign well before its supposed transformation into a state and empire in the mid-eighteenth century. It explores the Company’s political and legal constitution as an overseas corporation and the political institutions and behaviors that followed from it, from tax collection and public health to war-making and colonial plantation. This book also traces the ideological foundations of those institutions and behaviors, revealing how Company leadership wrestled with typically early modern problems of governance, authority, jurisdiction, and sovereignty. the book thus reframes some of the most fundamental narratives in the history of the British Empire, questioning traditional distinctions between public and private bodies, “commercial” and “imperial” eras in British India, a colonial Atlantic and a “trading world” of Asia, European and Asian political cultures, and the English and their European rivals in the East Indies. At its core, the book offers a view of early modern Europe and Asia, and especially the colonial world that connected them, as resting in composite, diffuse, hybrid, and overlapping notions of sovereignty that only later gave way to more modern singular, centralized, and territorially- and nationally-bounded definitions of political community. Given growing questions about the fate of the nation-state and of national borders in an age of globalization, this study offers a perspective on the vitality of non-state and corporate political power perhaps as relevant today as it was in the seventeenth century.Less
This book rethinks the nature of the early English East India Company as a form of polity and corporate sovereign well before its supposed transformation into a state and empire in the mid-eighteenth century. It explores the Company’s political and legal constitution as an overseas corporation and the political institutions and behaviors that followed from it, from tax collection and public health to war-making and colonial plantation. This book also traces the ideological foundations of those institutions and behaviors, revealing how Company leadership wrestled with typically early modern problems of governance, authority, jurisdiction, and sovereignty. the book thus reframes some of the most fundamental narratives in the history of the British Empire, questioning traditional distinctions between public and private bodies, “commercial” and “imperial” eras in British India, a colonial Atlantic and a “trading world” of Asia, European and Asian political cultures, and the English and their European rivals in the East Indies. At its core, the book offers a view of early modern Europe and Asia, and especially the colonial world that connected them, as resting in composite, diffuse, hybrid, and overlapping notions of sovereignty that only later gave way to more modern singular, centralized, and territorially- and nationally-bounded definitions of political community. Given growing questions about the fate of the nation-state and of national borders in an age of globalization, this study offers a perspective on the vitality of non-state and corporate political power perhaps as relevant today as it was in the seventeenth century.
Peter J. Marshall
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199640355
- eISBN:
- 9780191739279
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199640355.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Failure in America raised questions about the value of colonies and the future of the British empire. British governments, however, considered that certain colonial possessions remained of ...
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Failure in America raised questions about the value of colonies and the future of the British empire. British governments, however, considered that certain colonial possessions remained of fundamental importance and that they should continue to be managed on established principles. The prominence given to Ireland and the West Indies together with the remaining North American colonies meant that the Atlantic remained the main sphere of British concerns, although the East India Company's Indian territories was becoming a major imperial commitment which was gaining in consequence. The chapter stresses continuities rather than changes which might be seen as marking any immediate shift towards the creation of second empire different from that before the loss of America. A concluding section notes the beginnings of a new American continental empire purporting to be very different from the British one.Less
Failure in America raised questions about the value of colonies and the future of the British empire. British governments, however, considered that certain colonial possessions remained of fundamental importance and that they should continue to be managed on established principles. The prominence given to Ireland and the West Indies together with the remaining North American colonies meant that the Atlantic remained the main sphere of British concerns, although the East India Company's Indian territories was becoming a major imperial commitment which was gaining in consequence. The chapter stresses continuities rather than changes which might be seen as marking any immediate shift towards the creation of second empire different from that before the loss of America. A concluding section notes the beginnings of a new American continental empire purporting to be very different from the British one.
Emily Erikson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159065
- eISBN:
- 9781400850334
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159065.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
The English East India Company was one of the most powerful and enduring organizations in history. This book locates the source of that success in the innovative policy by which the Company's Court ...
More
The English East India Company was one of the most powerful and enduring organizations in history. This book 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 employment. Exploring trade network dynamics, decision-making processes, and ports and organizational context, the book demonstrates why the English East India Company was a dominant force in the expansion of trade between Europe and Asia, and it 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. Although 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. The book highlights the dynamic potential of social networks in the early modern era.Less
The English East India Company was one of the most powerful and enduring organizations in history. This book 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 employment. Exploring trade network dynamics, decision-making processes, and ports and organizational context, the book demonstrates why the English East India Company was a dominant force in the expansion of trade between Europe and Asia, and it 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. Although 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. The book highlights the dynamic potential of social networks in the early modern era.
