Compagny, Crown and Colony : A preview

Abstract

Commercial companies played a very significant role in the colonial endeavour. The great French, English and Dutch merchant companies of the seventeenth century opened up trading routes and colonialism followed in their wake. In a few cases companies had an even more prominent role in that they took over the direct rule of territories, forming company colonies. Some of the original 13 colonies of what became the USA were governed by companies; the Virginia Company was only one example. Providence Island and Bermuda were others in the seventeenth century; St Helena was ruled by the English East India Company from 1659 to 1834; a German trading company ruled part of New Guinea in the late nineteenth century; the Eastern Telegraph Company ruled Ascension Island between the First and Second World Wars. The author became interested in this subset of colonialism when researching on Ascension Island and has since written a monograph developing the topic more fully, with particular reference to the East India Company and St Helena in the seventeenth century.