How does a fucking spice company manage to have a huge army and conquer an entire subcontinent?

How does a fucking spice company manage to have a huge army and conquer an entire subcontinent?

He who controls the spice controls the universe.

>people want new spices to make bomb food
>company wants to get an upper hand on market with new spices
>need company militia to go to and protect new places
>some guys want to travel and see new places
>????? (how much can we sell this for)???
>profit

He who controls the spice controls the universe.

Did they actually hire mercenaries? On paintings and in popular culture their army looks just like regular redcoats.

Lots of money
Strong government backing
Super fractured politics of India allowed them to play states off each other
Local recruiting
Untouchable at the sea
Better tech in general

Im proud of u

They did most of their recruiting from people who mustered out of the regular British army.

Does anyone have book recommendations
On the company? Thanks.

Money. Spices were expensive shit.
Kek.

States are just corporations

modern oligarchic russia is alot like a gas company with an army.

how does it manage to x?

First of all, nice trips. Second, they started hiring Redcoats after the local mercenaries chimped out too much.

India: A History by John Keay had some good information on the EIC. It is, however, a history of India from the Harappan period to the modern day; it is not specifically about the Company.

Money, government backing, troops, and a fractured India that was too busy fighting itself to repulse the Eternal Anglo.

HEIC

It was better times, OP.

The company had its own private military, and would hire basically anyone who'd fight for them; their forces were a mishmash British, mercenaries from other European countries, and native troops. Later actual British forces started operating in India adjacent to the company's forces, thus making things even more confusing.

Well me mustn't forget that it wasn't a private independent company like we understand it buy a government-approved monopoly so it makes sense that the British military took part in defending their interests.

The royal troops were there to look after strictly crown interests, company looked after themselves and didn't really care about the crown

Nice.