The anarchy: the relentless rise of the East India Company

摘要

Thomas Twining, the tea merchant, visiting the site of the battle of Buxar in the 1790s pondered how a group of merchants—the British East India Company—had achieved dominion over India. 'Results so disproportionate to the means which produced them seem quite inexplicable' (p. 202). How did a joint stock company with a modest headquarters in Leadenhall Street come to rule most of India and to have an army of almost 200,000 soldiers?