Roche Family Genealogy Blog

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Wednesday, March 23, 2005

East India Company, Contract

Santhi Hejeebu has published a paper on Contract Enforcement in the English East India Company.

Extract:
Long-distance trade depends crucially on the enforcement of long-distance contracts, those in which principals are significantly removed from agents. The problem of contract enforcement in the English East India Company, the largest of the English chartered companies, is explored through an analysis of the information environment, the formal employment contract, and the broader relational contract. The relationship between Company servants and Directors reflects a multi-task principal-agent problem, in which servants trade public for the Company and at same time conduct their own private trade. Private trade, sustained by the private use of Company resources, and dismissals were the mechanisms that make East India contract work. Mechanisms which served little purpose were salaries and pre-employment bonds.

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