Company Politics: Commerce, Scandal, and French Visions of Indian Empire in the Revolutionary Era

The French monarchy chartered the Nouvelle Compagnie des Indes to maintain French diplomatic and financial credit in the region. Officials and intellectuals sought to remake the company as a private, purely commercial actor, challenging the legitimacy of the Old Regime's economic and imperial policies. The New Company emerged as an innovative capitalist actor, challenging the Anglo-Dutch competitors and presenting the Revolutionary Era as one of dynamic economic ideologies, practices, and experimentation.

Format: Hardback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 26 July 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

The French monarchy established the East India Company, known as the Nouvelle Compagnie des Indes, in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War and the consolidation of British power on the subcontinent. This company aimed to uphold French diplomatic and financial standing among European rivals and trading partners, particularly in a region crucial to the broader imperial economy. Instead of relying on territorial conquest, officials and intellectuals sought to redefine French power as a network of trade, envisioning the trading company as a private, purely commercial entity rather than a sovereign state-owned enterprise.

Elizabeth Cross offers a fresh perspective on political economy, imperialism, and the history of corporations during the late Old Regime and the French Revolution in her book Company Politics. Despite its reputation for speculation, corruption, and scandal, Cross argues that the New Company emerged from the specific circumstances France faced in India as a weakened imperial power compared to the expanding British East India Company. French government officials, theorists, and private financial actors engaged in intense debates over differing notions of political economy, debt, and imperial power for Europe and the Indian Ocean world. Their goal was to control the company for their own purposes, challenging the legitimacy of the Old Regime's economic and imperial policies and seeking to revolutionize the very nature of the corporation through progressive demands for corporate self-governance.

Thus, the New Company should be recognized as an innovative capitalist actor in its own right, distinct from its Anglo-Dutch competitors. Company Politics makes a significant contribution to scholarship on capitalism, empire, and globalization by delving into the history of the East India Company. Through its analysis, the book sheds light on the complex interplay between state and market, the challenges to the Old Regime's economic and imperial policies, and the transformative potential of corporate self-governance.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197653753