The English (later British) joint-stock trading company that governed large swathes of South Asia — the template for the modern corporation and for corporate imperialism.
The EIC as proto-corporation: the first truly modern joint-stock company, raising capital from dispersed shareholders for large-scale commercial ventures. At its peak, the EIC governed 90 million Indians, maintained a private army of 260,000 soldiers, and controlled trade across Asia. William Dalrymple's The Anarchy documents how a private corporation, motivated purely by profit, conquered the Indian subcontinent through corruption, violence, and political manipulation. Template for the intertwining of corporate and state power.
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