Article: The East India Company: The original corporate raiders

[Teehe]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/04/east-india-company-original-corporate-raiders

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[Snail2]

I'm surely a lowlife scum but I'd buy in . EIC had a vision, a mission and the determination to achieve these goals.

BTW I think the bitcoin community could raise enough funds to take over some not very well developed smaller countries in Africa with a lot of natural resources...
Hmmm? What do you think about the Honourable West Africa Company on Havelock or on NXT AE ?

[Beliathon]

I'm surely a lowlife scum but I'd buy in . EIC had a vision, a mission and the determination to achieve these goals.

There's almost no limit to what you can accomplish when you're willing and able to throw unthinkable quantities of human suffering at a problem. That's how they built the pyramids when the engineering technology of ancient Egypt would have otherwise made such a feat impossible.

[Possum577]

The original can't be a corporate raider...they need other corporations to raid, which wouldn't have existed if they were the first.

[Agestorzrxx]

Its a fascinating story, and I look forward to the book. Yet before we all become high and mighty in disparaging the EIC, let us recall that Europeans colonized four continents across the Globe, and in terms of human rights, India is probably one of the better examples. Northern India was conquered and then colonized by the Moghuls, and they were no less opporuntist than the EIC. Here's the rub - how do we reconcile our modern notions of human rights and abhorence of the rule of the gun and exploitation, with the fact that the entire fabric of our civilizations, from Neolithic times to the present was established through rule of superior weaponry, cunning and subjugation, later transformed, with history appropriately massaged, into our modern notion of history and civilization. Which people on which continent are free of such a legacy? Still the corporate angle of the EIC is very interesting and unique, and one we need to study as we look at the way the world is moving forward.

[notbatman]

Its a fascinating story, and I look forward to the book. Yet before we all become high and mighty in disparaging the EIC, let us recall that Europeans colonized four continents across the Globe, and in terms of human rights, India is probably one of the better examples. Northern India was conquered and then colonized by the Moghuls, and they were no less opporuntist than the EIC. Here's the rub - how do we reconcile our modern notions of human rights and abhorence of the rule of the gun and exploitation, with the fact that the entire fabric of our civilizations, from Neolithic times to the present was established through rule of superior weaponry, cunning and subjugation, later transformed, with history appropriately massaged, into our modern notion of history and civilization. Which people on which continent are free of such a legacy? Still the corporate angle of the EIC is very interesting and unique, and one we need to study as we look at the way the world is moving forward.

Eskimos in North America, psychopaths tend to have a short lifespan there.

[Lethn]

I believe the church pre-dates the East India Trading company by several thousand years, I know many religious people here wouldn't regard them as a corporation but when you consider how many non-christian countries they tried to dismantle and take over and the way they did it I'd disagree.

[Snail2]

I believe the church pre-dates the East India Trading company by several thousand years, I know many religious people here wouldn't regard them as a corporation but when you consider how many non-christian countries they tried to dismantle and take over and the way they did it I'd disagree.

Church isn't a good example. They rarely acted on their own. From the beginning the church used to be involved on the request of the secular authorities. The king or whatever boss asked the church to be involved as "spreading the light of faith" sounds better than "Let's go there and grab their stuff". (Today these bosses using the word "democracy" instead of "faith".) BTW IMO this practice goes back to the first shaman who started looking for signs and omens and blessed the stone axes and clubs of the tribe before they raided their neighbours.
I think the vikings were the only honest raiders in history. No BS just pure plundering .

[Beliathon]

I believe the church pre-dates the East India Trading company by several thousand years, I know many religious people here wouldn't regard them as a corporation but when you consider how many non-christian countries they tried to dismantle and take over and the way they did it I'd disagree.

Church isn't a good example. They rarely acted on their own. From the beginning the church used to be involved on the request of the secular authorities. The king or whatever

Wrong. There were no secular authorities back then. Kings ruled by divine right. The comparison to corporations is valid, church-government collusion for profit was the precursor to modern corp-government for profit collusion.

[BitMos]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/04/east-india-company-original-corporate-raiders

at least there I could have done what ever I want with what ever plant of the creation, and not be a slave subservient to ideal of "life" that aren't mine.

[Lethn]

I believe the church pre-dates the East India Trading company by several thousand years, I know many religious people here wouldn't regard them as a corporation but when you consider how many non-christian countries they tried to dismantle and take over and the way they did it I'd disagree.

Church isn't a good example. They rarely acted on their own. From the beginning the church used to be involved on the request of the secular authorities. The king or whatever

Wrong. There were no secular authorities back then. Kings ruled by divine right. The comparison to corporations is valid, church-government collusion for profit was the precursor to modern corp-government for profit collusion.

Exactly, during the colonial era when the Americas were first discovered the church colluded with Portugal and Spain to plunder or control less advanced countries who didn't know about them.

[BitMos]

I believe the church pre-dates the East India Trading company by several thousand years, I know many religious people here wouldn't regard them as a corporation but when you consider how many non-christian countries they tried to dismantle and take over and the way they did it I'd disagree.

Church isn't a good example. They rarely acted on their own. From the beginning the church used to be involved on the request of the secular authorities. The king or whatever

Wrong. There were no secular authorities back then. Kings ruled by divine right. The comparison to corporations is valid, church-government collusion for profit was the precursor to modern corp-government for profit collusion.

Exactly, during the colonial era when the Americas were first discovered the church colluded with Portugal and Spain to plunder or control less advanced countries who didn't know about them.

the law($) of warfare.