Outsourcing Empire: How Company-States Made the Modern World

Company-states drove European expansion, building the world's first international system. They were hybrid ventures run for profit, with sovereign powers of war, peace, and rule. They succeeded best where they could balance power and profit, but lost their usefulness and legitimacy as European states strengthened.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 24 May 2022
Publisher: Princeton University Press

From the Spanish conquistadors to the British colonialists, the prevailing narrative of European empire-building has centered on the rival ambitions of competing states. However, as Outsourcing Empire reveals, from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, company-states, not sovereign states, drove European expansion, building the world's first genuinely international system. Company-states were hybrid ventures: pioneering multinational trading firms run for profit, with founding charters that granted them sovereign powers of war, peace, and rule.

Like the English and Dutch East India Companies, they carved out corporate empires in Asia. Meanwhile, other company-states pushed forward European expansion through North America, Africa, and the South Pacific. In this comparative exploration, Andrew Phillips and J. C. Sharman explain the rise and fall of company-states, why some succeeded while others failed, and their role as vanguards of capitalism and imperialism.

In dealing with alien civilizations to the East and West, Europeans relied primarily on company-states to mediate geographic and cultural distances in trade and diplomacy. Emerging as improvised solutions to bridge the gap between European rulers' expansive geopolitical ambitions and their scarce means, company-states succeeded best where they could balance the twin imperatives of power and profit. Yet, as European states strengthened from the late eighteenth century onward, and a sense of separate public and private spheres grew, the company-states lost their usefulness and legitimacy.

Bringing a fresh understanding to the ways cross-cultural relations were handled across the oceans, Outsourcing Empire examines the strategies employed by company-states to navigate the complexities of international trade and diplomacy. It sheds light on the challenges they faced, such as navigating rivalries between European powers, dealing with local resistance, and adapting to changing political and economic conditions. By exploring the rise and fall of company-states, Outsourcing Empire provides valuable insights into the complex web of relationships that shaped the early modern world. It demonstrates how company-states played a crucial role in shaping the global order and highlights the enduring legacy of their influence on the world today.

Weight: 444g
Dimension: 156 x 233 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691206196