Fascinating tale of 1st corporate power

Author: William Dalrymple Publisher: Bloomsbury RRP: $29.99 Reviewer: Mary Ann Elliott

CORPORATE avarice is nothing new; almost daily we hear of yet another major or multinational company including our own banks, defrauding the customer.

As far back as 1600, with the help of Sir Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake and sundry veteran pirates and thieves, the East India Company came into being.

Initially buying spices from the East Indies and avoiding the middle man, the Arabs, the directors turned to India, with its rich sources of cotton textiles.

By the 17th century, India was an economic giant, producing a quarter of global manufacturing; indeed an industrial power house compared to England, and greedy eyes turned to this vast goldmine.

Not averse to plundering and looting, the British East India Company took over large swathes of the country as a major corporation, defeating and displacing the Mughal Empire with devastating results. Effectively they set up a government run by English traders who collected taxes via a private army, literally leeching its citizens.

How this small band of Englishmen managed to subjugate an entire nation is the subject of William Dalrymple’s fascinating book.

Playing off rival rulers against each other, as well as Hindus and Muslims, and despite military uprisings in protest, India was doomed to two centuries of ruthless, methodical plunder.

The company’s corporate brigandry still looks disturbingly familiar.

In Dalrymple’s riveting story, the EIC’s aggressive colonial power inspires awe and shame today.

Many Indians still live with the painful results of its brutal and divisive rule.

Not Britain’s finest hour, Dalrymple brilliantly unfolds a timely cautionary tale of the world’s first corporate power.