خرید و دانلود نسخه کامل کتاب The English Chartered Trading Companies, 1688-1763: Guns, Money and Lawyers – Original PDF

This book aims to provide a collective view of the five major English char- tered trading companies that were active during the period 1688–1763: the East India Company (EIC), the Royal African Company (RAC), the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), the Levant Company and the Russia Com- pany.1 These companies, which were chartered in the sixteenth and sev- enteenth centuries, allowed English trade to expand beyond its traditional markets and enabled access to vast new markets including India, China, Russia, Africa, the Ottoman Empire and Canada. The economic benefits of the new trade routes developed by these companies cannot be measured simply in terms of their profits. Their imports were one of the driving forces of the English consumer revolution and the companies had a broad net- work of economic stakeholders who depended on them for their livelihood. The thousands of jobs that were associated with the companies included: sailors, soldiers, shipbuilders, dockworkers, woollen cloth and silk weav- ers, hat-makers and metal workers, amongst others. Leading merchants in the companies also became important figures in the City of London and the companies made a significant contribution to the finances of the state. Despite their impressive contributions to the economy, the companies, as a group, are unappreciated. The historiography of these companies is dominated by one salient fact; the overwhelming focus of historical enquiry has been directed towards the EIC. In the last decade, some 90% of publications concerning the compa- nies have dealt with the EIC. There has been some but considerably less work on the other joint stock companies. Canadian historians continue to be interested in the nineteenth-century history of the HBC, especially the role that the company played in the development of western Canada. The RAC has also received some attention because of its role in the slave trade and it has been used as a case study in the early development of capital markets. The two regulated companies, the Russia Company and the Levant Company, have received even less attention