Abstract
This article charts the growth of the world’s first transnational corporation, the East India Company, and the resonance this has for today’s globalization agenda. Starting as a speculative company to import spices, the East India grew to rule onefifth of the world’s population. The paper also discusses the implications, for India and Britain, of its profit-driven development achieved through trade, taxes and conquest. It also describes how the Company’s wealth allowed it to manipulate and even bring down governments.