Thomas Dunne Books Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600--1900

Very informative book!

I was always puzzled by the British East India Company. What was the relationship with the British government? Why did they have an army? etc etc... After many years of procrastination, I decided to look for a good book in Amazon, and I ended up buying this book. The author does a great job in explaining how the British East India Company operated along with all the other monopolies from the 17th century stretching out all the way to the end of the 19th century. I liked the fact that he did not overwhelm you with historical details. For each monopoly, he gives you the general background and then he focuses on one individual, a merchant king, who made the monopoly great. Fascinating reading, particularly since I was clueless about these monopolies. The only reason I give it 4 stars is the lack of maps... but there is always google or apple maps (whatever you preference). At times I had to do some additional reading in order to better understand the background , and Wikipedia was a good resource. I would recommend this book to whoever is interested in this topic.

"Merchant Kings" is worth 5 stars, even if all you read is the epilogue!A well written, interesting book that reads, for the most part, like an anthology of six short stories, each similar, but different. It shows the traits of six "merchant kings' during the mercantile phase of capitalism; how they were bound by ambition, racialism,monetary greed, corporate loyalty, and above all, lust for power. When their corporations were fully developed they included private armies along with political control and in some cases their own monetary system...functions our current corporate masters would love to control.The powers and practices of these men (and they were all white males) and their companies are relevant to understanding the powers and practices of those in control today.

I certainly would not give this book high marks for a really good analysis of the Merchant Kings. It is a good introduction to the businesses they conducted , but it really doesn't have the scope, to examine in great length the entire episodes of all the companies he began to investigate and if you are looking just to do preliminary reading about these companies then so be it... buy it , but be warned, it will leave you a bit unsatisfied and hungering for more information at least it did to me and plenty of others.

Well written and insightful. Worth a buy