The Corporation That Changed the World cover art

The Corporation That Changed the World

How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Corporation That Changed the World

By: Nick Robins
Narrated by: Simon Barber
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £19.29

Buy Now for £19.29

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

This is the history of the East India Company and its enduring legacy as a corporation, dealing in exploitation and violence.

The English East India Company was the mother of the modern multinational. Its trading empire encircled the globe, importing Asian luxuries such as spices, textiles and teas. But it also conquered much of India with its private army and broke open China's markets with opium. The Company’s practices shocked its contemporaries and still reverberate today.

This expanded edition explores how the four forces of scale, technology, finance and regulation drove its spectacular rise and fall. This story provides vital lessons on both the role of corporations in world history and the steps required to make global business accountable today.

©2012 Nick Robins (P)2026 Pluto Press

Critic reviews

'A powerful analysis of the rise and fall of the British East India Company, a private company that conquered a subcontinent and subjugated an entire people'

(Huw Bowen, Professor of Imperial and Maritime History, Swansea University)

'Elegantly written and sharply argued, Nick Robins’ gripping account of the rise and fall of the English East India Company brings to life a crucial episode in the history of globalisation'

(Sankar Muthu, Princeton University)

'The East India Company might have been relegated to the dustbin of history, but Robins digs it out, looks into the nooks and crannies, and comes up with plenty of insights that today's managers will find rich and rewarding'

(Mick Blowfield, Senior Research Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Oxford University, co-author of Corporate Responsibility (2011))
No reviews yet