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Author Erikson, Emily, author

Title Between monopoly and free trade : the English East India Company, 1600-1757 / Emily Erikson
Published Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2014]
©2014

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 252 pages) : illustrations, map
Series Princeton Analytical Sociology Series
Princeton analytical sociology series.
Contents Cover; Title; Copyright; CONTENTS; Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Merchant Capitalism and the Great Transition; 3. The European Trade with the East Indies; 4. Social Networks and the East Indiaman; 5. Decentralization, Corruption, and Market Structure; 6. The Eastern Ports; 7. Eastern Institutions and the English Trade; 8. Conclusion; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Summary The English East India Company was one of the most powerful and enduring organizations in history. Between Monopoly and Free Trade locates the source of that success in the innovative policy by which the Company's Court of Directors granted employees the right to pursue their own commercial interests while in the firm's employ. Exploring trade network dynamics, decision-making processes, and ports and organizational context, Emily Erikson demonstrates why the English East India Company was a dominant force in the expansion of trade between Europe and Asia, and she sheds light on the related problems of why England experienced rapid economic development and how the relationship between Europe and Asia shifted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Though the Company held a monopoly on English overseas trade to Asia, the Court of Directors extended the right to trade in Asia to their employees, creating an unusual situation in which employees worked both for themselves and for the Company as overseas merchants. Building on the organizational infrastructure of the Company and the sophisticated commercial institutions of the markets of the East, employees constructed a cohesive internal network of peer communications that directed English trading ships during their voyages. This network integrated Company operations, encouraged innovation, and increased the Company's flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness to local circumstance. Between Monopoly and Free Trade highlights the dynamic potential of social networks in the early modern era
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-229) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Corn laws (Great Britain)
Free trade -- Great Britain
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- International -- Economics.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Reference.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- International -- General.
HISTORY -- Europe -- Great Britain.
British colonies
Commerce
Corn laws (Great Britain)
Economic history
Free trade
SUBJECT Great Britain -- Colonies -- Economic conditions. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056641
Great Britain -- Colonies -- Commerce -- America
Subject America
Great Britain
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781400850334
1400850339
9781306715607
1306715601