Plus, he says, corporations will use political as well as

14 Mar Plus, he says, corporations will use political as well as

The world’s most powerful corporation

It was the most powerful multinational corporation the world had ever seen. Founded in 1600, the English East India Company power stretched across the globe from Cape Horn canada goose store to China.

The company was established for trading, with a royal charter 2018 canada goose outlet by Queen Canada Goose Outlet Elizabeth I granting it a monopoly over business with Asia.

But the Company influence went further. It owned the ports of Singapore and Penang and played a canada goose outlet toronto factory major role in developing cities including Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. It was one of the largest employers in Britain and also hired vast numbers overseas: in India, it ran a military of 260,000 local recruits. It canadian goose jacket shaped everyday life in England and across Europe, from the Canada Goose Parka tea the English started to drink to the calicoes they took to wearing.

Imagine a company with the influence of Google or Amazon, granted a state sanctioned monopoly and the right to levy taxes abroad and with MI6 and the army at its disposal.

From its establishment by royal charter to its ability to raise armies, the East India Company was a product of its time. But many parallels have been drawn with today mega corporations from early examples of insider trading to the way it responded to booming stock prices with overexpansion and mismanagement.

its financing, structures of governance and business dynamics, the Company was undeniably modern, writes Nick Robins in his book The Corporation that Changed the World. Plus, he says, corporations will use political as well as economic ends to promote their interests. Today, Canada Goose Coats On Sale that called lobbying. what are the parallels with a prestigious job at related site the 18th Century most powerful multinational and one at a cutting edge corporation today? Were its headquarters as impressive as Facebook Were the canada goose clearance sale perks as good as Google We attempted to find out.

View image of A British East India Company official rides with his escort

Acing the interview

Like cheap Canada Goose many multinationals today, the East India Company wasn just one of the world most powerful corporations it was also one of the most coveted to work for.

Competition to work at the East India Company was fierce. Most people, of course, were out of the running from the start: was overwhelmingly white males and no women, apart from housekeepers, says Margaret Makepeace, lead curator of the British Library East India Company Records.

Getting a foot in the door was all about who you knew. Even for manual labour jobs in the warehouses you canada goose replica needed canada goose black friday sale a nomination from one of the company directors. (There were 24 directors, chosen from a pool who had at least in company stock, elected annually). for admission always greatly exceeded the number of vacancies. Unsolicited petitions to the Court of Directors were routinely rejected, writes Makepeace in her book The East India Company London Workers.

View image of Workers unload tea ships

If you wanted to be a clerk, or at the headquarters in London you Canada Goose sale would also have to be nominated.

First, to guarantee good behaviour, Canada Goose Online every worker had to post a bond. A new hire could expect Canada Goose Jackets to put down In terms of what you could buy, that equivalent to some ($51,800) today. canada goose The higher the position and salary, the higher the bond: even as early as the 1680s the president canada goose deals of an overseas factory had to sign a bond for (about Your career would start with an unpaid period a five year stint, shaved down to three in 1778.

Today, working for free, or even paying to work, has come under fire. Conde Nast has been one of several media companies to be sued for unpaid internships, while the auctioning off of internships for thousands of dollars is a fixture of the fashion industry. At the East India Company, too, your career would start with an unpaid period a five year stint, shaved down to three in 1778. Only near the end of the century did a token amount of around ( today) start to be paid out each year. Their solution was a kind of boot camp In 1806, the Company opened the East India College, a 60 acre estate buy canada goose jacket cheap in Haileybury, designed by architect William Wilkins, to train new clerks. On the curriculum: history, the classics, law and Hindustani, Sanskrit, Persian and Telugu. Closed down in canada goose outlet store canadagooseparkasoutlet locations 1858 but later reopened, it known as the Haileybury and Imperial Services College today.

View image of Haileybury College

Welcome to HQ

Facebook new 430,000sqft, Frank Gehry designed headquarters in Menlo Park, California has the world biggest open floor plan and a nine acre green roof; Google campus has a bowling alley and seven fitness centres.

The canada goose coats on sale East India Company headquarters in London may not have had a roof deck or sculpture garden, but its directors wanted to show that they were stylish and impressive.

View image of The ‘new’ East India House

When the buy canada goose jacket building was rebuilt canada goose coats in the 1790s, neoclassicism was all the rage, and the building came complete with a six column portico. The tympanum a decorative wall over the entrance showed King George III defending the commerce of the East an 18th Century exercise in corporate branding.

Inside, the headquarters were just as extraordinary. The courtroom had a marble bas relief of Britannia surrounded by India, Asia and Africa and canada goose clearance doors panelled with pictures of far flung Company ports like Bombay and the Cape. Marble statues of British officers in Roman togas watched over one of the sale rooms. Spoils from war including the Canada Goose online bullet ridden silk standards, pipe organ of a tiger devouring a European and jewel encrusted gold throne of the Sultan of Mysore Tipu were on display in the headquarters museum.