Just Finished Reading: The Anarchy – The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple (FP: 2019) [409pp]

It was not exactly an auspicious start to the enterprise. Fewer than expected investors had signed on to the undertaking. Certainly nowhere near the investment capital had been raised compared to their Dutch and Portuguese rivals. From the very start it was going to be an uphill struggle to survive. As if that wasn’t enough the first trading missions went badly – so badly that a significant number of trading ships simply vanished never to return. Only the interception of an already laden Dutch ship saved the company from going under in those early days. But Luck, as she has a tendency of doing, changes. Settlements were agreed with local princes and trading started flowing back – in a trickle at least. But the opportunities were truly immense. The British who landed in India, at Bengal, were astonished at the wealth seemingly there for the taking – if they could hold onto it. Security was, naturally, a problem. Months away from any relief they had to be able to defend themselves. The British navy was available in time of war – in other words quite often – but could hardly be prevailed upon to protect assets inland from the trading ports. But the Company did have something in its favour – money – and with money the ability to buy security in the form of mercenary captains and hired local soldiers trained to fight in the European way. A private Company hired itself a private army. They were not alone of course but gradually the Portuguese, the Dutch and even the French left the sub-continent effectively leaving it to the British to gobble up piecemeal. The Company and its plans were not without opposition however. The local leaders had been fighting amongst themselves for generations and knew a thing or two about warfare. They were even aware of European fighting styles and could afford European arms and European captains just as the Company could. But the local leaders had other things too – deep seated rivalries that could not just be set aside in the face of a common enemy, an overpowering sense of power and entitlement that had little foundation in reality and a mistaken belief that one or two lost battles would send the Company scuttling home to Britain. Things had gone too far for that. The Company was now so successful that it was FAR too big to fail. The revenue it generated for the British economy outweighed every other money stream by far. If the Company failed, some argued with a great deal of reason, then Britain itself could fail. So, gradually, reluctantly, the British government (whose Ministers already invested in the Company and who were loath to see their investments in peril) became more and more entangled in its operation and more and more dependent on its survival.

Before reading this excellent history I had no real idea just how important the East India Company was in the history of the British Empire, Britain herself and indeed world history of that period. Not only did the Company provide – by essentially asset stripping an entire sub-continent of its natural wealth – a HUGE capital influx to the coffers of the British economy for decade after decade but it gradually took over the administration of more and more of India and placed the British government in the position of having to ‘take charge’ when the Company was faced with bankruptcy. If you have ever wondered, like me, just how the British ‘acquired’ India then look no further that the history of the East India Company. It’s actually incredible that a private company answerable only to its shareholders was generating a significant percentage of Britain’s GDP and, at least for a time, had more armed forces at its command than did its mother-country. I wonder if that’s a sneak-peek into the future of multi-nationals. Covering several hundred years from its inception to its crashing down in flames this is a fascinating look at a company out of control, a continent being ransacked and the fight over what should be done about it. A definite must read for anyone interested in India, the British Empire and the possible future of BIG business.