The main contribution of the work is to offer a comprehensive history of the English East India Company during the century 1660–1760. It also examines the commercial economy of the Asian countries in which the Company traded and its political relations with Asian princes. Finally, it is a study of business and economic decision-making under pre-modern conditions. The book is based on an extensive analysis of the quantitative and qualitative material available in the Company's archives. The data-processing of the quantitative evidence and its subsequent statistical analysis was carried out on a computer, and the book contains comprehensive tables on the volume and value of the Company's trade, prices of commercial goods, and on monetary and financial history. The extensive scope of the book and its consideration not only of the Company but of the economies in which it operated make it essential reading for all concerned with the economic history of the period, both of Europe and Asia. The techniques used in analysing the original data and their theoretical framework make it of methodological interest to economic historians.
