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Tag: Business history

The English and Their History: Review

Since Brexit, I had always wanted to read about the peculiarity of Euroscepticism in England, and the reasons England voted in stark difference from Scotland on the Remain/Leave referendum.  I started with the single-volume history of England — The English and Their History by the historian Robert Tombs. As an engineering grad, I did not take a formal course in history. Reading this book would be an enjoyable learning experience and rectify that mistake. The Brexit referendum would impose that the whole of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) exits Europe.  The term Brexit, of course, refers to the exit of Great Britain. In truth, it was a slim majority of older, working-class England that was itching…

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The Anarchy: Review

The Anarchy covers the rise of East India Company (EIC) from the arrival of Thomas Roe in 1608 at Surat, all the way up to the Battle of Delhi in 1803.  It is a fascinating and an expansive topic. For Indian readers, it is also a somber read as we know and reflect how the next hundred odd years unfolded. EIC with its crown-blessed untrammeled monopoly rights subjugated ancient empires, appropriated massive wealth, and dovetailed the direction of a subcontinent forever. 

There has never been a multinational corporation that was as powerful, as nimble, as unregulated and as successful as the East India Company.  In fact, East India Company may have been the first corporation that was “too big to fail”, when it was rescued by a massive bailout in 1773, by the members of British Parliament, many of whom owned stake in EIC.

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