🗃️ From the Archive: From East to West

How a 16th Century Firm Can Explain Today’s Digitised Society

Originally published on Backbench UK on November 24, 2020.

In 1599, a group of 218 merchants in London led by Sir Thomas Smythe, put their investments together to form a joint stock company. Raising over £3 million, the corporation was set up to obtain spices from the East Indies to then be sold in England for the “Honour of our Nation” and the “Wealth o…