Adventurers: The Improbable Rise of the East India Company: 1550-1650

Written by David Howarth

Narrated by Michael Page

The unlikely beginnings of the East India Company-from Tudor origins and rivalry with the superior Dutch-to laying the groundwork for future British expansion

The East India Company was the largest commercial enterprise in British history, yet its roots in Tudor England are often overlooked. The Tudor revolution in commerce led ambitious merchants to search for new forms of investment, not least in risky overseas enterprises-and for these "adventurers" the most profitable bet of all would be on the Company.

Through a host of stories and fascinating details, David Howarth brings to life the Company's way of doing business-from the leaky ships and petty seafarers of its embattled early days to later sweeping commercial success. While the Company's efforts met with disappointment in Japan, they sowed the seeds of success in India, setting the outline for what would later become the Raj. Drawing on an abundance of sources, Howarth shows how competition from European powers was vital to success-and considers whether the Company was truly "English" at all, or rather part of a Europe-wide movement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Mar 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350807523

David Howarth

David Howarth is a Reader in the History of Art at Edinburgh University

Reviews for Adventurers

[kamakirinoko · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The author seems to be desperate to employ sesquipedalianisms where more facile—dare I say *jejune*—language is more germane.

In other words, he is more inclined to use six words, preferably the more arcane (or even better in French or Latin) the better, where one word will do. For example, he uses the word "fillip," the meaning of which even *I* had to look up, not once, but at least three times. A more obscure word—say, "jejune," which he has used twice so far, and I'm not even halfway through—would be difficult to find in ANY passage from a contemporary writer, and more probably in a book by (and for) Oxford dons.

I pride myself on my knowledge of English, having been educated at the finest public (private) schools in England and being knowledgeable in Latin and fluent in French, but someone who speaks or understands neither is going to have a hard time with this tome.

And they'd better be an economist, or an antiquarian, because this book has been plucked from the long-buried chests of musty documents left behind by the accountants of the East India Company . . . you'll go no nearer to India than a discussion of what items to best trade there.

I was amazed at how dense the author made every sentence—so crowded with obscure terms, vocabularies and other languages—that I'm giving up, even though I had really, really wanted to pick up a good book about the East India Company.

Sad to say, I didn't find it here. And I dare say that many many readers are going to run screaming from this misguided, misbegotten and malapert collection of balivernes.