The Global Takeover You Didn’t Notice – P2 EIC To MNC Series

From the 17th to the 19th centuries, European East India Companies (EICs) dominated global trade. These corporations, under royal charters, combined commercial ambition with state-backed military power to colonize and control large parts of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Their modern successors—Multinational Corporations (MNCs)—have adapted the same model of domination, but now through economic mechanisms rather than colonial militarism.

This article from the EIC to MNC Series explores the ideological and structural continuities between the EICs of the colonial era and the MNCs of the globalized world post-1995. It focuses on how both sets of entities pursued globalization, free trade, privatization, and liberalization, using different strategies suited to their time.

In this article

Historical Anatomy of EICs (1600–1900)

Primary Entities:

Portuguese Estado da Índia (1498–1834)

British East India Company (1600)

Dutch East India Company – VOC (1602)

Da...