The English East India Company`s Silk Enterprise – Economy, Empire and Business: Worlds of the East India Company

Karolina Hutková

Introduction: Companies, Political Economy and the Great Divergence Early Modern Silk Industry, Trade and Mercantilism Empire, the English East India Company and Bengal Raw Silk Bengal, Piedmont and the English East India Company The Bengal Silk Industry and the English East India Company Filatures and Performance in the Bengal Silk Industry The Bengal Silk Industry and British Laissez-faire Policies Bengal Raw Silk and British Demand in the Nineteenth Century Conclusion Appendix A: Description of the Piedmontese Reeling Machine by Dionysius Lardner Appendix B: Average Prices of Bengal Raw Silk on the British Market according to the Type of the Silk, 1796-1856 Appendix C: Components of the EEIC's Business Model Appendix D: Returns to Investment Analysis Appendix E: Comparison of Manufacturing Costs at the EEIC's Experimental Filature and Common Filature in its Vicinity, 1832 Appendix F: Mechanisation of Silk Throwing in England, 1856 Appendix G: Types of Silkworks Reared in Bengal Silk Districts, 1818 Bibliography Index