Customer Reviews

The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company

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The East India Company, which described itself as "the Grandest Society of Merchants in the Universe," controlled half the world's trade at its height. This grand book, obviously the subject of many years of research, often reads more like an adventure yarn than a book about a business, even the grandest in the universe. The Company, which received its Royal Charter on the last day of 1600, moved through a series of fits and starts, disasters and triumphs, as it moved through a turbulent 220 years of history. From its initial fumbling start on the obscure nutmeg island of Run, it eventually turned into a quasi-government ruling vast parts of India and the most important enterprise in the China trade. It outlasted absolute monarchy in Britain, and saw the rise of the modern corporation.

John Keay has done a masterful job of telling this story, but look at the material he has had to work with! The Honourable Company often seems to have been pretty dishonourable, characterized by ferocious infighting, both in the headquarters in London and overseas. The characters who set up trading operations in far-flung corners of the world appear to have been either indolent drunks or superhumans burning with ambition. There are enough pirates and battles and exotic names to please any reader. And the leitmotiv of British salesmen anxiously trying to unload tweed cloth to unidentifiable buyers in the tropics.

The East India Company, although a monopoly, had competition. It came from many sources, including the Dutch, the French and particularly from "interlopers," traders working on their own account. The Company also had to compete with its own employees who, paid a pittance, conducted business on their own accounts as well. The strength of this book is that it gives the impression of boundless activity, even when things went badly. Given the different locations the company operated in, and different local conditions, it is remarkable that the narrative flows as smoothly as it does.

The writing is often superb. No Imperial apologist, Mr. Keay often makes the point that historians have tended to look to the Company as a harbinger, almost the organizing idea, for the British Empire. This foreshadowing is strained. The Company men, to judge from those described in the book, were motivated primarily by greed and self-interest. Some, such as Warren Hastings, who became Governor-General in India and held the position for thirteen years, were genuinely fond of India. Hastings is a fascinating character and Keay's writing does him, and his colleagues, honour:

""The Great Moghul," as Hastings was called in Calcutta's first newspaper, stood alone, a sad and self-righteous Caesar, embattled but unbowed, solicitous but ruthless, fastidious but careless, lofty yet devious-a man, in short, crying out to be misunderstood. Contemporaries duly obliged; so has posterity."

With this kind of writing, I must recommend this book highly. Just have a bookmark available because it is necessary to keep flipping back and forth to the maps. Just where is Benkulen anyway?

From the author of the impressive _India: A History_ comes this compact but consistently informative study of the English East India Company, from its origins in the last days of the sixteenth century to the first decades of the nineteenth. This is narrative history at its best, packed with detail, incident and striking characters. Keay fills his pages with entertaining curios and arresting anecdotes, ensuring that the human elements are never lost amid the sweep of history. The geographical and historical sweep is broad, and the focus does not remain unwaveringly upon the Company's servants, but takes in details of societies ranging from London to Japan.

For the student of the period, there is enough sharp analysis here to provide a useful overview/introduction to the issues of the period. For the general reader, there's a wonderful tale encompassing everything from early modern finance to a harem in Sumatra. Wonderful.

Recording 200+ years of East India Company history is no small feat for, in such a work, this far-flung commercial enterprise produces a litany of ships, ports, merchandise, employees, currencies, costs, indigenous rulers, company directors, parliamentarians, military men, privateers, and scalawags. That John Keay kept it straight is admirable. That the reader can is even more so.

The Honourable Company is a witty, insightful and, at times, painstakingly detailed account of the East India Company's cyclical expansion, retraction, retrenchment, and re-expansion over the course of three centuries. From the island of St. Helena to Canton, China, Keay patiently plots the monopoly's course. Ever eager to highlight the irony, inanity, and ignominy characteristic of such an enterprise, Keay provides several humorous asides in addition to those moments when the reader can't but shake his head at these haughty, ill-informed, greedy and grasping monopolists.

Well-researched, well-written, and a delight to consume, The Honourable Company suffers only when the blander details of global trade begin to inhibit it's otherwise excellent pace. The sheer volume of material required to catalog an endeavor of this magnitude makes it difficult to entice the reader page after page. Yet, John Keay pulls it off smartly and for this The Honourable Company merits a rating of 4+ stars.

At times I loved the writing. Plenty of great, amazing, 17th century adventure stories. It got hard to keep track of the characters. He fails to step back often enough and remind the reader of the broader patterns. In fact, I'm not sure he sees them himself. Plenty of material on British insensitive arrogance. Page 308 f is a hilarious story. I was unaware of how the French and British jostled for power in India in the 1700s. It would have been better with more maps and illustrations inserted at appropriate places. See page 424 for unfair cynicism. Much mockery of the company and its leaders. The title of the book is itself a mockery. This book is a reaction against the older, hero-oriented British imperial histories.

Has faithfully laboured,to bring alive this remarkable enterprise with colours flying.Be warned, Keay crams his story with extensive quotes from the archives, and that in italics, so bring a magnifying glass,and be prepared to do a little re-reading. My copy refers to a paperback.The hardcover may be kinder to the eye.

This book assumes you are familiar with Indian geography.As such to me who does not the book simply goes begging for accompanying topographic maps,and I would advise anyone considering giving it a read to get some.

It wasn't too long ago that it could be said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire." Much of the credit for this truism goes to The English East India Company--a huge commercial enterprise that grew from a small group of Elizabethan tradesmen into the "grandest society of merchants in all history." The expansion and colonization that made England great was for the most part due to the efforts of that Honourable Company.

It is to John Keay's credit that he is able to tell the story of the early beginnings and subsequent growth of the this group of merchants and administrators in such a lively and anecdotal manner while keeping strictly to historical accuracy.

Whether you are a writer of historical fiction or an avid history buff, this is a great addition to your library.

I was interested in learning about the UK's earliest travels to India and beyond and this book certainly was informative. I thought the author went into an overly exhaustive explanation of some things and he seemed to re-visit certain periods over and over but all in all it was interesting and I'm glad I bought the book. If you're looking for more of a brief overview of this era this is not the book for you.