---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <[email protected]> Date: Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 6:56 AM Subject: East India Company - Economist Article - A private army of 200 000 men To: [email protected] http://www.economist.com/node/21541753 The East India Company The Company that ruled the waves As state-backed firms once again become forces in global business, we ask what they can learn from the greatest of them all Dec 17th 2011 | from the print edition excerpt : The Company’s growing involvement in politics infuriated its mighty army of critics still further. How could it justify having a monopoly of trade as well as the right to tax the citizens of India? And how could a commercial organisation justify ruling 90m Indians, controlling 70m acres (243,000 square kilometres) of land, issuing its own coins, complete with the Company crest, and *supporting an army of 200,000 men*, all of which the East India Company did by 1800? -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens