ABSTRACT
Trading companies were key makers of global business prior to the twentieth century, integrating international markets and enabling foreign direct investment. Business and economic historians are concerned with explaining the growth of international trade and subsequent effects on economic development and processes of globalization. However, their explanations concerning trading companies are limited by methodological challenges of definition derived from the highly diversified nature of trading companies’ operations. The chapter uses current research on the nineteenth century Anglo-Indian trade to highlight possibilities for improving explanations through analysis of changes in organizational form, to better understand the evolution of trading companies and their effect on international trade and the making of global business.
