Corporations and Empire

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Business historians often trace the origins of modern multinational firms – from Amazon to McDonalds – to the European trading companies of the early modern world. Like modern firms, these corporations had investors, governance structures, and often tense relationships with political authorities in their home states. But these early European trading companies also commanded armies and navies, ruthlessly colonized and subdued indigenous empires, and participated in the enslavement and human traffic of millions. This course will examine the global histories of early trading companies, including the Virginia Company, the Royal Africa Company, and the British, Dutch, and French East India Companies. Who were the investors and shareholders in these ventures, and what power did they have in governing their companies? What political, military, and economic relationships did the companies forge with major, non-Western powers like the Mughal Empire and China? What kinds of financial and political controversies did they generate in Europe, and what was the ultimate human cost of their business abroad? What happens when a company acts like a "state," and what does the early modern period teach us about business structures today? We will read new historical work on the relationship between corporations and empire, from western and non-western perspectives. We will also read key primary source documents from the histories of the British, Dutch, and French companies, including charters, legal acts, diplomatic correspondence, and works of economic and political thought by authors such as Adam Smith, Josiah Child, Hugo Grotius, Denis Diderot, and Edmund Burke.