It was a time when one of the most powerful rulers in the world wasn't a government-it was a corporation. It's official name was "The Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies." Some simply called it "John Company," others "Company Bahadur." But most people knew it as the Honourable East India Company. It was the first major shareholder-owned business enterprise. At its height it ruled more than a fifth of the world's population, and generated a revenue greater than the rest of Britain combined-including the government. To hold all this together it had it's own private army and navy consisting of over a quarter million men. But at it's heart, it was still a "company of merchants" and it was her merchant ships that made everything else possible. This is E. Keble Chatterton's authoritative account of those ships and the men who helped forge the history of two continents.