Investment and Empire in the Later Eighteenth Century: East India Stockholding, 1756-1791

Taking recent debate about the nature of investment in empire as its starting point, this article examines changes in the patterns of East India stockownership during the second half of the eighteenth century. The collective identity of East India stockholders is established and it is then demonstrated how events in Bengal in the 1760s reshaped the structure and ownership of the stock. Speculative activity and political manipulation of the stock are examined as agents of change. Far from the scope of stockholding broadening as the century progressed, the social and geographical profile of East India investors had in fact narrowed considerably by 1800.