Was the East India Company the most powerful non-state body

They were effectively an empire

>>388244
Which one? I think the Dutch one may have been even more important in its day.

no. knights templar or hansa league was.

>>388244
I would say Facebook, or Google. Their grasp extends to pretty much the entire world

>>388285
In many ways the EIC was a model of corporate efficiency: 100 years into its history, it had only 35 permanent employees in its head office. Nevertheless, that skeleton staff executed a corporate coup unparalleled in history: the military conquest, subjugation and plunder of vast tracts of southern Asia. It almost certainly remains the supreme act of corporate violence in world history.

>>388244

You could make an argument that some of the Crusading orders were more powerful, but honestly, the EIC is a damn good choice.

Here's a better question.

What went wrong?

>>388302
Lost their monopolies and shit started to go downhill.

File: asteroid mining.jpg (1MB, 2048x1303px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2048x1303px

The old trading companies are probably going to seem very similar to future space based companies, what with how far away from any governmental authority they will operate.

>>388302
They were pushed into taking a more active role in actually running their "territory", plus Christian missionaries were antagonising the locals, which was blamed on the Company

>>388834
must the spices really flow?