Company-State
Discussion
Indy Johar:
"This is where the East India Company becomes a useful historical rhyme. It fused private capital, monopoly privilege, diplomacy, organised violence, taxation and territorial government. It was not merely a corporation protected by the British state. It became a company-state exercising sovereign power.
The contemporary form is different. Most corporations do not formally govern territory or collect taxes. Their quasi-sovereignty is infrastructural. They control systems upon which governments, economies and populations depend.
The company-state is therefore not returning as a single chartered corporation. It is returning as a distributed ecology of corporations, financial institutions, platforms, supply chains, security agencies and public authorities.
The East India Company is not a model for this future. It is its warning: an example of what becomes possible when public privilege, private accumulation and coercive power converge without public accountability."