So last week I was scrolling through some history feeds when I saw people arguing about why the British East India Company tanked. Honestly I only remembered it from school as this powerful company that ruled India then poof disappeared. That got me curious enough to dig in properly.
How I started digging
First thing I did was hit the library downtown. Real books smell different ya know? Found this massive tome called The Honourable Company and flipped straight to the chapters around the 1770s to 1850s. Spilled coffee on page 242 – oops – but kept reading while it dried. Got distracted by old financial charts showing their debt growth looking like a hockey stick.
Later that night I watched three documentaries while eating cold pizza. One guy kept saying corruption corruption corruption like a broken record. Noticed how they kept showing the same opium shipment photos though. Skeptical mode activated.
The messy discoveries
What came out clearly was four big disasters piling up:
- Their own employees were basically robbing them blind – fat cat executives buying country mansions while the company coffers emptied
- The Sepoy Rebellion disaster where Indian soldiers turned against them costing insane money to suppress
- Competitors sneaking in everywhere like ants at a picnic stealing their tea and spice deals
- British politicians finally going “enough!” when they kept begging for bailout money
Checked some academic papers online too. Dry stuff but one line stuck with me: It wasn’t one explosion but a thousand leaks sinking the ship.
The lightbulb moment
What nailed it was realizing it’s just like modern companies crashing. Their agents in India were like todays overpaid CEOs bleeding cash, the Sepoy thing was their equivalent of failed product launch, and government bailouts are still happening now. History repeats right? Found myself nodding like “yep seen this movie before”.
Finished my notes at 3AM smelling like stale coffee and pizza. Had that weird clarity when you connect old history dots to modern messes. Crazy how 19th century corporate greed looks just like today’s news.
