Latest / History Unplugged Podcast
Britain Controlled the Globe by Farming Out Colonial Governance to the East Indian Company and other Corporations
How did Britain – an island nation the same size as Oregon – manage to control most of the world through its colonial empires? The answer is that it didn’t, at least not directly. Britain farmed out control to its imperial holdings by granting land rights to joint-stock corporations. And many of them, like the East India Company, were sovereign nations in all but name.
Across four centuries, from Ireland to India, the Americas to Africa and Australia, British colonialism was above all the business of corporations. Corporations conceived, promoted, financed, and governed overseas expansion…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.