{"product_id":"9781408864388","title":"The Anarchy: The Rise and Fall of the East India Company","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTHE TOP 5 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eFINANCIAL TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e OBSERVER,\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eDAILY TELEGRAPH, WALL STREET JOURNAL\u003c\/i\u003e AND \u003ci\u003eTIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BOOK OF THE YEAR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e'Dalrymple is a superb historian with a visceral understanding of India\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eA book of beauty\u003c\/b\u003e' o \u003cb\u003eGerard DeGroot, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn August 1765 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish in his richest provinces a new administration run by English merchants who collected taxes through means of a ruthless private army o what we would now call an act of involuntary privatisation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe East India Company's founding charter authorised it to 'wage war' and it had always used violence to gain its ends. But the creation of this new government marked the moment that the East India Company ceased to be a conventional international trading corporation dealing in silks and spices and became something much more unusual- an aggressive colonial power in the guise of a multinational business.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn less than four decades it had trained up a security force of around 200,000 men o twice the size of the British army o and had subdued an entire subcontinent, conquering first Bengal and finally, in 1803, the Mughal capital of Delhi itself. The Company's reach stretched until almost all of India south of the Himalayas was effectively ruled from a boardroom in London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Anarchy\u003c\/i\u003e tells the remarkable story of how one of the world's most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn his most ambitious and riveting book to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9781408864388\u003cbr\u003ePages: 320\u003cbr\u003ePublished: 10-09-2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"William Dalrymple","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42774336110761,"sku":"9781408864388","price":12.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0424\/9518\/0962\/products\/9781408864388.jpg?v=1669516862","url":"https:\/\/roseyravelstonbooks.com.au\/products\/9781408864388","provider":"RoseyRavelston Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}