Summary:
A Business of State reveals how the English state took an active role in the creation and functioning of the East India Company in the early years of its existence, and, reciprocally, how institutions like the Company helped create the early Stuart state. To understand how the Company operated, the author delves into the political life of the body as well as constructing a richly detailed account of the interactions between the Company and the regime. Viewing politics and political engagement through the lens of the Company exposes a version of the English polity in which Company members regularly appeared before the monarch and privy council, saw themselves as active agents in government, and used the tools of public appeal to sway both Company and state policies. In return, monarch and privy council promoted and protected the Company, depended on Company expertise and resources, and shaped state policy objectives in response to Company needs and requirements.-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:
Part One. Governing the Company: The patent and the formation of the Company -- Constituting authority: the court of committees and the generality -- Wooing adventurers: membership and useful men -- Division within the Company: the problem of faction and representation -- Merchants, trading companies, and public appeal -- Part Two. The Company and the State: The changing patent: negotiating privileges between Company and regime -- "What his men have done abroad": martial engagements and the Company -- The Dutch East India Company and Amboyna: crisis and response in the Company -- Taking stock and looking forward: the difficulties of the late 1620s -- Crown manipulations of the East Indies trade: dismantling the Company in the 1630s.