Corporations and War

[Skm1091]

A lot of statists are worried that without regulations then the corporations will co-op the government and they will take over and go to war with other countries and governments etc. The only example I found in history (so far anyway) of something close to this was the British East India Company.



http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=288

But that was in the age of mercantilism not free market capitalism. And the East India Company was also a dejure aka. government granted monopoly or Public Company so that crap about we needing to regulate corporations so they don't become militarizes and then start taking over the world. Bullshit! The government was IN ON IT!     

[MrBogosity]

On a probably useless note, The Cold Cash War by Robert Asprin is a pretty good book, and dealt with the subject very realistically once you ignore the improbability of the basic scenario. Those corporations had some VERY creative ways of waging war!

It's a terrifying thought, to look at governments waging war and think of how terrible it would be if government WASN'T so inept and inefficient!

[Skm1091]

On a probably useless note, The Cold Cash War by Robert Asprin is a pretty good book, and dealt with the subject very realistically once you ignore the improbability of the basic scenario. Those corporations had some VERY creative ways of waging war!

It's a terrifying thought, to look at governments waging war and think of how terrible it would be if government WASN'T so inept and inefficient!

Yeah that would be.

Like you said before what we have is not capitalism what we have is corporatism. It would also not be inaccurate to say that corporatism is a modern day  descendant of mercantilism. 

[tnu]

So where would th emoney or these corporate wars come from?

[Ibrahim90]

So where would th emoney or these corporate wars come from?

largely from the profits of the companies themselves, though recruitment into European regiments always came from Europe (Indian soldiers served in separate Sepoy battalions). remember, until the mid-1800's, the British East India company army was not a part of the British armed forces--not even in the capacity of independent companies. they were literally private armies.

the charters founding these companies (be it the British east India Co., the Dutch east India colony, or the French version), all specified that these companies had the right to levy their own private armies, ostensibly as guards of honor, and to protect the companies interests in the region--which considering the abundance of bandits in pre-colonial India, was understandable.

naturally though, the presence of these military forces had ulterior motives, mainly their tendency to wage proxy wars on behalf of their respective countries, while maintaining what we would call today "plausable deniability". with Britain and France, it led to three wars in India throughout the 1740's and as late as 1763, which have been called the Carnatic wars--one of which was fought without a formal declaration of war coming from either side's respective govco's first. It also very nearly lead to all out war between Britain and the Netherlands, when the Dutch East India Company, and Dutch colonies in modern day Indonesia attempted to Invade the Bengal in 1759. (the Government in Europe, as far as we know, was uninvolved. though it is plausible).


EDIT: oh, you meant from the book Shane mentioned? nvrmnd. the answer would be the same though--at least in part.

[MrBogosity]

Been a long time since I read that book. I should pull it off the shelf and reread it.

After I finish Catch-22 (reread), Every Day is an Atheist Holiday, How To Teach Relativity To Your Dog...

[Skm1091]

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