Review by:  
Gregory Harper
University of Texas at Austin

The Business of Empire:  The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1750-
1840
Huw V. Bowen (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2006), 304 pages

Lest potential readers be wary of yet another book on the East India Company, rest
assured that H.V. Bowen’s latest monograph does bring something new to the
field.  Its focus on the company itself sets this book apart from the literature: this
business history traces the changes to the company as it transitioned “from trader
to sovereign”.  The period under study begins with the Company’s acquisition of
Bengal in 1756, through the final loss of its commercial trading privileges in 1833.  
As the influence of free trade economics grew stronger in England, the East India
Company moved from monopolistic trade with Asia to ‘the business of empire’,
expanding its territorial holdings into what would become Britain’s Indian Empire.

Bowen does not describe the events on the periphery, rather he depicts how the
Company (and the metropole) perceived and reacted to those events.  The Board
of Directors may have been wary of increased military ventures and land
acquisitions, but the Company’s correspondence demonstrated its inability to reign
in officials in India with any reliability.  Still, the actions of those men on the spot
forced reactions from the Company, as did political influences from multiple
Regulating, India, and Charter Acts, and further external circumstances including
the War of American Independence.  As the Company enjoyed a prominence in the
public eye comparable to that of the Bank of England, investors sought larger
shareholdings, more people tried to gain influential positions on the Board, and
Parliament looked to increase its control and oversight of the Company’s activities
in Asia.  Bowen organizes the analysis thematically, discussing in successive
chapters the Company’s relationships with Britain and the government; the people
involved with the Company, investors then employees; and then the Company’s
methods of governance and trade.  The chapter on record-keeping is especially
illuminating as to how the Company struggled to meet the pressures of its growing
responsibilities, as well as stave off further parliamentary encroachment, and adapt
to society’s changing business climate.  A concluding chapter usefully describes
the Company’s wider influence on the British economy.

In the preface Bowen unapologetically offers this “old-fashioned study of
institutional change”.  Indeed, no apology is necessary, for this book stands as an
excellent resource on a surprisingly neglected topic.  Bowen has published
extensively on the East India Company and the relationship between business and
empire, and his comfort in this area of historiography is apparent.  This text,
however, presumes some familiarity with the histories of India and the British
Empire, although readers do not need special economic or business knowledge.  
The book does not provide a chronology or a bibliography, but footnotes offer
readers plentiful guidance for further studies.
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June 2007