Inequality in different forms has existed throughout history, however, with the passage of time, there is increasing awareness of its human cost even when there is little agreement on the causes of inequality or the strategies that may be adopted to address it. This chapter focuses on factors...

In the eighteenth century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) traded sappanwood, a source of red dye for textiles, in both its Dutch-Asiatic and intra-Asian trade routes. The voyage and cargo records kept by the VOC's bookkeeper-general in Batavia reveal a small but convenient trade that...

Reciprocity and Dispossession: Processes of Transformation -- Monopoly and Competition: Contests over Indigenous Peoples’ Labour and Land -- Honour and Duplicity: Debts of Rivals, Dreams of an Aristocrat -- Servitude and Independence: The Settler Colonial “Experiment” Begins -- Menace and...

"This book directs its main focus to the Guinea Company and its members, aiming to understand the genealogy of several major changes taking place in the English Atlantic and in the Anglo-Africa trade in the 17th century and beyond. Little focus has been directed at the companies that preceded...

The overall purpose of this thesis is to understand how and why networks played a significant role for the merchants and company traders of the Danish Asiatic Company (DAC) in their trade in China. To explore this, the following research questions will be answered:  From the perspective of...

"Long-distance oceanic and overland trade along the Eurasian landmass in the 1400s was largely dominated by Chinese, Indian, and Arabic traders and predominantly conducted over short trajectories by sole traders or organized around small-scale enterprises. Yet, within two centuries of Europeans'...

"This is an important, revisionist account of the origins of the British Empire in Asia in the early modern period. David Veevers uncovers a hidden world of transcultural interactions between servants of the English East India Company and the Asian communities and states they came into contact...

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Dutch East India Company and the Rhythm of Life in Japan -- The Dutch in Japan -- Tokugawa Japan -- The Hofreis (Court Journey) -- Chapter 1: Gift-Giving and the Early Modern Web of Diplomacy --...

"Ascent and Decline of Native and Colonial Trading: Tale of Four Indian Cities presents a vivid picture of how the British political regime reorganized the structure of the Indian economy to suit its own objectives. While doing so, the regime also affected the geographical distribution of...

Weathering the storm: the Russia trade in the first two decades of the seventeenth century -- Turning the corner: the "new" Muscovy Company emerges -- The Russia merchants and their trade partners, 1620s-40s: from London to Moscow -- An enterprise recovered: the Russia trade, 1620s-40s -- The...

Many markets are limited by laws and customs enforced by political and religious authorities. North, Wallis, and Weingast (2009) argue that the transition from limited access requires a series of steps like rule of law for elites and the creation of perpetually lived organizations. This paper...

Many markets are limited by laws and customs enforced by political and religious authorities. North, Wallis, and Weingast (2009) argue that the transition from limited access requires a series of steps like rule of law for elites and the creation of perpetually lived organizations. This paper...

This study concerns eighteenth century Dutch East India Company (VOC) tax farming practices in the Southeast Asian port town of Malacca. Empirical data from VOC archives are used to determine the value of VOC's tax farming. Adopting a qualitative methodology, and drawing on perspectives from...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the emergence of auditing in a sixteenth century business organization and to link these developments to the evolution of the organizational structure and accounting. More specifically, the paper introduces into the debate material, which documents the...

A Business of State reveals how the English state took an active role in the creation and functioning of the East India Company in the early years of its existence, and, reciprocally, how institutions like the Company helped create the early Stuart state. To understand how the Company operated,...

This book employs a wide range of perspectives to demonstrate how the East India Company facilitated cross-cultural interactions between the English and various groups in South Asia between 1600 to 1857 and how these interactions transformed important features of both British and South Asian...