Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600-1900
Categories: Business & Money, History
Historian Stephen R. Bown tells the story of the great trading companies that ruled vast territories between 1600 and 1900. He profiles six of their leaders, including Jan Pieterszoon Coen of the Dutch East India Company, Robert Clive of the British East India Company and Cecil Rhodes of the British South Africa Company. Bown shows how these companies acted as governments, raised armies and waged wars, often with brutal consequences.
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- Shane Parrish: “It’s not a part of history that many are fond of remembering, tied up as it is with exploitation and murder.”