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The Improbable Rise of the East India Company: 1550-1650

David Howarth

$51.95

Hardback

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English
Yale University
04 May 2023
The East India Company was the most powerful commercial enterprise in British history. Yet its speculative, highly risky origins are now all but forgotten. A revolution in commerce during the Tudor period led to a bold search for new forms of investment and above all for overseas enterprises – the most profitable of which would be the Company.

David Howarth investigates the birth of the East India Company and explores why, having survived its first decades, it would last for another two hundred. Through a host of stories and fascinating details, Howarth examines the Company’s evolving way of doing business. While its efforts met with failure in Japan, they consolidated in India, thanks largely to Sir Thomas Roe. Howarth shows how Europe was central to the Company; as he offers the first ever comparison of the Company and its Dutch rival the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie.

By:  
Imprint:   Yale University
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 235mm,  Width: 156mm, 
ISBN:   9780300250725
ISBN 10:   030025072X
Pages:   400
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

David Howarth is emeritus professor at Edinburgh University. He is the author of Lord Arundel and His Circle, Images of Rule, and The Invention of Spain, and editor of Art and Patronage in the Caroline Courts.

Reviews for Adventurers: The Improbable Rise of the East India Company: 1550-1650

The history of the East India Company is so often read backwards. This wonderfully well-written book restores its early development to its true context - it is, like cold water in a desert, the picture for which we've gasped. -James Evans, author of Merchant Adventurers Fascinating and authoritative. David Howarth weaves a rich and rewarding tapestry of the uncertain, often chaotic development of the company, moving with style from London to Southeast Asia, and amassing a colourful cast list of princes, merchants and politicians. Adventurers will become the standard book on the subject, and deservedly so. -Jerry Brotton, author of This Orient Isle Howarth's keen eye for intrigue weaves together a tale of commercial competition and imperial ambition that carries us from the Tudor court to the coasts of Japan. Adventurers is a quick-paced romp through the chaotic early history of Britain's most infamous corporation. -Edmond Smith, author of Merchants


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