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The Business of Empire

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The Business of Empire

The Business of Empire

The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756–1833
H. V. Bowen, University of Leicester
January 2006
Available
Hardback
9780521844772
    Description

    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.

    • A pioneering study of the East India Company and the functioning of imperial Britain
    • A significant contribution to a range of issues from the evolution of multinational enterprise to the role of women in the public sphere
    • The book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the British Empire, business and trade, and the economy

    Reviews & endorsements

    “Bowen's important argument in attractive prose belongs in all academic libraries…. Highly recommended.” -- Choice

    "The Business of Empireprovides a rich and fascinating exploration of what H.V. Bowen modestly describes as the 'internal history' of the East India Company...The book offers a wealth of insights."
    Douglas M. Peers, The International History Review

    "...his approach is unprecedented and much needed...an excellent starting point from which others can explore these topics." --Woodruff D. Smith, University of Massachusetts: Journal of Interdisciplinary History

    "...a highly accessible and yet rigorously scholarly study..." -Michael H. Fisher, Histoire sociale

    See more reviews

    Product details

    January 2006
    Hardback
    9780521844772
    320 pages
    235 × 162 × 25 mm
    0.654kg
    15 tables
    Available

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    This title is available for institutional purchase via Cambridge Core

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    Contents

    Table of Contents

    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. Relationships: city, state, and empire
    • 3. Relationships: government and Company
    • 4. People: investors in empire
    • 5. People: company men
    • 6. Methods: an empire in writing
    • 7. Methods: the government of empire
    • 8. Methods: the management of trade
    • 9. Influences: the Company and the British economy
    • Afterword.
      • Show more

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    About the authors
      Author
    • H. V. Bowen , University of Leicester

      H. V. Bowen is Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Leicester. His previous books include Elites, Enterprise, and the Making of the Briish Overseas Empire, 1688–1775 (1996); and War and British Society, 1688–1815 (1998).

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