

The East India Company: The original corporate raiders - catchmrbharath
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/04/east-india-company-original-corporate-raiders?CMP=fb_gu

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SocksCanClose
Dalrymple fails to mention that the Mughal Empire wasn't exactly the most
sound of economic masters over the subcontinent.

For decades Mughal princes had been controlling monetary flows by printing new
currencies every year or so, causing rapid inflation in old currencies. The
Mughal Empire allowed Clive to set up a free trade zone with a land grant of a
swamp that eventually became Calcutta, and the East India Company built a
wall, and started trading on the pound (£). It's amazing what happens once you
stop trading with unstable currencies. Growth and prosperity. The Mughal
empire, which was on the verge, essentially collapsed over the next few years
(post '57 -- mostly through the 60s and 70s) as the merchant classes just
shifted to doing business in Calcutta.

\--> I wrote my undergraduate thesis about this topic, and spent a year at the
British Library reading first-hand accounts from both sides, focusing on the
resulting Anglo-Indian legal system set in place by Sir Robert Chambers.
Dalrymple is right about a lot, but this piece most certainly omits the fact
that a number of sectors of Mughal society gained a great deal from dealing
with the British (never mind overlooked Mughal brutalities that go unmentioned
in the piece).

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catchmrbharath
Agreed.

But don't we all gain something from any huge corporate in the world? The
discussion is more about the repercussions of giving a lot of power to one
corporate entity.

