Adam Smith and the East India Company

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Free Download Mark Donoghue, "Adam Smith and the East India Company "
English | ISBN: 1032884517 | 2025 | 160 pages | PDF | 2 MB
This book examines Adam Smith's perspectives on the India question during a pivotal juncture when the East India Company evolved from a commercial enterprise into a de facto imperial authority in India. Smith astutely recognised the significance of this transition and anticipated its potential to unleash societal change. Yet despite the importance of his observations in The Wealth of Nations, Smith's treatment of the East India Company's operations and governance in India has received limited scholarly attention. This study addresses that oversight by arguing that Smith's reflections on India constitute an essential dimension of his political economy.

Situating Smith within broader eighteenth-century debates on trade, colonial policy, and the moral legitimacy of empire, this study reinterprets his position on the East India Company's monopoly, the integration of Indo-European commerce, and the consequences of territorial acquisition in India. Challenging prevailing historiographical interpretations, it offers a new reading of Smith's views on the transfer of Indian territories to the British Crown. Although Smith neither visited India nor engaged directly in colonial administration or trade, his sustained interest in Indian affairs profoundly shaped his thinking on governance, commerce, and imperial reform. The book highlights Smith's recognition of India's wealth, his awareness of the strategic importance of the East Indies trade, and his call for institutional reforms to reconcile the East India Company's interests with Britain's evolving imperial responsibilities. In doing so, it dispels the assumption that Smith's theories were detached from the economic and political realities of empire and instead positions him as a key figure in the intellectual history of imperial thought. Bridging the fields of economic thought, imperial history, and Indian historiography, this book offers a fresh perspective on Smith's enduring relevance.
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