UC Berkeley Berkeley Program in Law and Economics, Working Paper Series Title Institutional Innovations, Theories of the Firm, and the Formation of the East India Company Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2216c263 Author Harris, Ron Publication Date 2004-02-01 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Institutional Innovations, Theories of the Firm and the Formation of the East India Company Ron Harris* Preliminary Draft - February 2004 Please do not quote or cite without the permission of the author * Professor of Law and Legal History, School of Law, Tel Aviv University, Visiting Professor Boalt Hall School of Law, UC Berkeley (
[email protected] [email protected]) The English East India Company [EIC] is considered to be the first significant publicly-held joint-stock corporation in England, in Europe, and, in fact, in the world. Some would say that it was the first multi-divisional or multinational corporation in history. It was the largest merchant corporation in the world throughout much of its 250+ years of existence. It had a monopoly over England’s trade with Asia, played a significant role in financing the British State, and eventually became the ruler of the Indian sub- continent. The EIC was chartered on a symbolic date: December 31st 1600. It predated by almost a century the formation of an effective market in stocks in Britain which began to pick up as a market place for government bonds after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and only became an active market in corporate shares in the 18th century.