Adventurers: The Improbable Rise of the East India Company: 1550-1650
David Howarth
Mar 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Michael Page
2.0star
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17 hr 8 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
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.
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2.0
1 review
Joel Taplin
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November 18, 2023
The book uses very colourful and flowery language. Its almost like the author is being paid to squeeze as many adverbs, adjectives, clever quotes, analogies, metaphores and suchlike into as short a space as possible. That might work well when reading, but when trying to listen to an audiobook while doing something else (walking/driving) its requires a lot more focus than any other book I've listened to. I also feel the author jumps around a lot, talking about the period and the background more than about what is actually happening with the EIC. Maybe that will start in the next chapter, but I've said that a few times already. I'm giving up on the book 25% of the way into it, which is the first time I've done that to an audiobook in the last couple of years.
About the author
David Howarth is emeritus professor at Edinburgh University. He is the author of Lord Arundel and His Circle, Images of Rule, and The Invention of Spain, and editor of Art and Patronage in the Caroline Courts.
Michael Page has been recording audiobooks since the mid-1980s and now has nearly 500 titles to his credit. He has won two Audie Awards and several AudioFile Earphones Awards. A PhD and a professional actor, Michael is also a retired professor of theater.
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