The Honourable CompanyA history of the English East India company. During 200 years the East India Company grew from a loose association of Elizabethan tradesmen into "the grandest society of merchants in the universe". As a commercial enterprise it came to control half the world's trade and as a political entity it administered an embryonic empire. Without it there would have been no British India and no British Empire. In a tapestry ranging from Southern Africa to north-west America, and from the reign of Elizabeth I to that of Victoria, bizarre locations and roguish personality abound. From Bombay to Singapore and Hong Kong the political geography of today is, in some respects, the result of the Company. This book looks at the history of the East India Company. |
Contents
This Frothy Nation | 24 |
Pleasant and Fruitfull Lands | 52 |
Jarres and Brabbles | 72 |
The Keye of All India | 90 |
FLUCTUATING FORTUNES | 109 |
A seat of Power and Trade | 130 |
Fierce Engageings | 148 |
Renegades and Rivals | 169 |
Outposts of Effrontery | 240 |
One Mans Pirate | 255 |
The Germ of an Army | 271 |
The Famous Two Hundred Days | 296 |
A PARTING OF THE WAYS | 329 |
The Transfer of Power | 362 |
Too Loyal Too Faithful | 392 |
Tea Trade Versus Free Trade | 421 |
Other editions - View all
The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company John Keay No preview available - 1993 |