Subtitled "When Companies Ruled the World, 1600-1900", this book tells the stories of these brilliant, powerful (and often unscrupulous) men: Jan Pieterszoon Coen and the Dutch East India Company, Pieter Stuyvesant and the Dutch West India Company, Sir Robert Clive and the English East India Company, Aleksandr Baranov and the Russian American Company, Sir George Simpson and the Hudson's Bay Company and Cecil John Rhodes and the British South Africa Company. Whew!
This was a very very interesting book. It was also not too difficult to read, although I found myself very eager to be finished with it once I got about halfway through because these men had so much in common that I got a little.... bored isn't quite the right word. I guess I just got tired of reading about the plight of the poor indigenous peoples of all these places! What an amazing group of men, though. And there are so many lessons to be observed and applied to today. Leaders, no matter how brilliant, just are not perfect. Is there ever a fool-proof way to avoid conflict of interest? Running a country is not a profit-making endeavor. Monopolies inevitably lead to abuse... and so much more.
This is definitely a book worth reading. I really enjoyed it. Thank you, Mr. Bown.
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