Imagine if a big company, let's say Google had its own army, and I don't mean some small security force. I mean like an army with over a quarter million men. Now imagine Google was allowed

to station that army in foreign territories where they wanted to do business. And now imagine

that Google, with their army, was also given not only a complete government-sanctioned

monopoly over their industry, but was also given the power to levy taxes on the citizens

of certain territories in which they did business, and in some cases to actually

set up and run those territories governments.

And now imagine that Google, with that power and that army, took over 770,000 square miles or 2 million square

kilometers of land and effectively ruled over 300 million people.

If you can imagine that, then you're pretty close to understanding the sheer power and influence of the British East India Company.

Many people have called the British East India Company the most powerful corporation the world has ever seen.

Started in 1600, it went on to command a standing army of 260,000 people rule most of the

Indian subcontinent and along the way became responsible for half of all the world's trade

And none of it would have been possible without St. Alina.

Welcome back to extremities.

This is episode 2 of 6 in our season about St. Helena. If you haven't listened to episode 1 yet, you should definitely do that now as it provides important context.

This episode will be a bit unusual for extremities because we are dedicating it entirely to history, but I promise it will be well worth it. We'll be taking you through over 200 years of St. Helene's story, during which time this tiny isolated island in the South Atlantic

was at the center of global economics and politics.

But before we do that, I need to thank one of the sponsors that makes extremities possible.

If you're listening to this podcast, it's either because you're obligated to, because you're

related to me, or because you're the type of person who enjoys learning.

Learning about unfamiliar places, about history, about economics,

nature, science, and a whole host of other things.

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