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The East India Company, the original corporate raiders

theguardian.com

81–90 of 130 posts

Re: The East India Company, the original corporate raiders

#81
post #77

Even though they mention it, I came across this chart a while back that shows just by how much bigger it was than the recent largest corporation https://i.pinimg.com/736x/14/4a/6c/144a6c7feb3823f5fd4baa562... It seems to have originally come from here https://i.pinimg.com/736x/14/4a/6c/144a6c7feb3823f5fd4baa562...

Your second link is a copy of the first. What are the units on that graph?

I know but one has an ad block banner.

Re: The East India Company, the original corporate raiders

#82
post #78

British Empire best empire. On balance probably a greater force for good despite it's misdeeds. The Guardian would love it if we all self flagellated for historical events and ignore any of the good we did it's part of their left wing doctrine.

I trust that you'll have similar gratitude for any doctor who kills you on their way to surgery, or any web developer who does the same on their way to build a revolutionary new Uber for Widgets

Of course, they do! Remember, it's all about The Greater Good™. A convenient excuse for colonial apologists.

Re: The East India Company, the original corporate raiders

#83
Democracy is meaningless if lobbyists are allowed to run rampant. You elect representatives once very 4-5 years and these guys are working 24/7 everyday to get their way with billions of dollars at play.

What's the point then of elections if its continuous lobbying with periodic interruptions that merely change the player?

Add revolving doors, favours to family and friends, media propaganda and modern democracy ceases to be meaningful and looks like lip service.

Re: The East India Company, the original corporate raiders

#84

It is actually amazing how little British folks today know about their own historical misdeeds, they may accept the issues towards USA and other countries but tend to downplay atrocities magnitudes higher in India and other countries India is important because it was the crown jewel of the British empire and was completely destroyed of its soul by the colonialists with very clever mixture of politics, military and ot…

I'm not an apologist for the former British Empire, but India's collection of tiny fiefdoms were basically lawless until the British showed up.

Re: The East India Company, the original corporate raiders

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Mughal's did bad things too, but some of their kings like Akbar at least tried to integrate society and not cause religious strife. The Mughal Empire did a lot of bad things in India, especially nutcases like Aurangzeb, and Indian people recognize those bad things. The problem, as I understand, is that a lot of British people don't know all the bad things the Empire did, or don't learn about it the way German peo…

> Churchill's decisions directly lead to the death of millions of people in India. He's no better than Hitler It gets even more ironic than that. During the 1940s Bengal famine, things were so bad that the Axis powers offered to step in and send humanitarian aid. Churchill not only refused, but he tried to prevent the newspapers from printing news of the offer, so that people wouldn't know how truly unnecessary their…

Why is this Winston asshole a hero again? Stabbed so many people in the back. One can understand if not condone the pre WW2 packs that compromised with Hitler. This is inexcusable.

Re: The East India Company, the original corporate raiders

#86

It is actually amazing how little British folks today know about their own historical misdeeds, they may accept the issues towards USA and other countries but tend to downplay atrocities magnitudes higher in India and other countries India is important because it was the crown jewel of the British empire and was completely destroyed of its soul by the colonialists with very clever mixture of politics, military and ot…

I'm not an apologist for the former British Empire, but India's collection of tiny fiefdoms were basically lawless until the British showed up.

Then why do you sound like one.

Re: The East India Company, the original corporate raiders

#87
Corporate militarization is doing pretty good in the modern age. Academi, formerly Xe Services formerly Blackwater is a pretty good example of such an entity but there are many other companies that had their own military section or that managed to co-opt the military of the country where they were operating (Shell Oil for instance).

Re: The East India Company, the original corporate raiders

#89

It is actually amazing how little British folks today know about their own historical misdeeds, they may accept the issues towards USA and other countries but tend to downplay atrocities magnitudes higher in India and other countries India is important because it was the crown jewel of the British empire and was completely destroyed of its soul by the colonialists with very clever mixture of politics, military and ot…

I'm not an apologist for the former British Empire, but India's collection of tiny fiefdoms were basically lawless until the British showed up.

The Indian subcontinent had already experienced the Mauryan and the Mughal empires (both bringing immense prosperity to the region) before the British showed up and looted the place clean.

Re: The East India Company, the original corporate raiders

#90
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for educating me. I updated my post.

But I think your remark was valid though. Leopold II's atrocities get very little attention in Belgium compared to Nazism. There are still quiet a lot of statues of him. Which indeed sounds weird in relation to Hitler statues. It might be an idea to give them the same treatment as the Nazi party grounds in Nuremberg. Proper context next to them.

>There are still quiet a lot of statues of him.

That I find kind of odd. His treatment of the locals in the Belgian Congo is sort of the gold standard for imperial oppression.

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