This lecture challenges conventional wisdom about where power is held globally. Philip Stern argues that rather than playing a subordinate role, corporations took the lead in global expansion and administration. From Ireland to India, the Americas, Africa and Australia, British colonialism was above all the business of corporations. Corporations conceived, promoted, financed and governed overseas expansion, making claims over territory and peoples while ensuring that British and colonial society were invested, quite literally, in their ventures. Nor did venture capitalism cease with the end of empire. Its legacies raise questions about corporate power that are as relevant today as they were 400 years ago.
Philip J. Stern is a historian of the British Empire and author of The Company-State and Empire, Incorporated (2023). He is Professor of History at Duke University, NC.
This online lecture is presented by The British India Historical Trust. For more information and to book tickets, please visit: https://www.britishinindia.org.uk/2024-25-zoom-lectures