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Adventurers: The Improbable Rise of the East India Company
The East India Company was the largest commercial enterprise in British history, yet its roots in Tudor England are often overlooked. The Tudor revolution in commerce led ambitious merchants to search for new forms of investment, not least in risky overseas enterprises—and for these “adventurers” the most profitable bet of all would be on the Company.
Through a host of stories and fascinating details, David Howarth brings to life the Company’s way of doing business—from the leaky ships and petty seafarers of its embattled early days to later sweeping commercial success. While the Company’s efforts met with disappointment in Japan, they sowed the seeds of success in India, setting the outline for what would later become the Raj. Drawing on an abundance of sources, Howarth shows how competition from European powers was vital to success—and considers whether the Company was truly “English” at all, or rather part of a Europe-wide movement.
Through a host of stories and fascinating details, David Howarth brings to life the Company’s way of doing business—from the leaky ships and petty seafarers of its embattled early days to later sweeping commercial success. While the Company’s efforts met with disappointment in Japan, they sowed the seeds of success in India, setting the outline for what would later become the Raj. Drawing on an abundance of sources, Howarth shows how competition from European powers was vital to success—and considers whether the Company was truly “English” at all, or rather part of a Europe-wide movement.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published November 22, 2022
15 people are currently reading
235 people want to read
About the author
David Howarth
103 books90 followersDavid Armine Howarth (1912 - 1991) was a British historian and author. After graduating from Cambridge University, he was a radio war correspondent for BBC at the start of the Second World War, joining the Navy after the fall of France. He rose to the rank of lieutenant commander and spent four yeas in the Shetland Islands, becoming second in command of the Shetland Naval base. He was involved in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), including the Shetland Bus, an SOE operation manned by Norwegians running a clandestine route between Shetland and Norway, which utilized fishing boats with crews of Norwegian volunteers to land agents and arms in occupied Norway. For his contributions to espionage operations against the German occupation of Norway, he received King Haakon VII's Cross of Liberty. The King also made Howarth a Chevalier First Class of the Order of St Olav.
After the War he designed and built boats before turning to writing full time. He wrote an account of the Shetland Bus operation, as well as many other books of history, bringing to his many of his books an immense practical knowledge of ships and the sea.
David Howarth died in 1991. At his request, his ashes were scattered over the waters of Lunna Voe, Shetland, near Lunna House, the first base of the Shetland Bus operation.
After the War he designed and built boats before turning to writing full time. He wrote an account of the Shetland Bus operation, as well as many other books of history, bringing to his many of his books an immense practical knowledge of ships and the sea.
David Howarth died in 1991. At his request, his ashes were scattered over the waters of Lunna Voe, Shetland, near Lunna House, the first base of the Shetland Bus operation.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 13, 2023
Actual Rating 3.5
This work explores the rise of the East India Company from its origins with the Tudors to its heated rivalry with the Dutch. It examines how the Company compared to others of similar kind, the ways it excelled and failed, and how it led to future British colonization. It was also an interesting look at how advances in navigation led to an explosion of European nationalism. The author challenges some preconceived notions with this work surrounding the EIC. The author claims that the EIC's original goals did not include colonization, and that it was not destined to succeed from the beginning. In fact, there was very little planning and preparedness in the early days of the EIC despite it becoming a powerhouse in later decades.
Chapter One was a good broad stroke of how the book was going to be set up, and from there, each chapter went into detail surrounding the rise and difficulties the company faced. The amount of detail in this work is massive. An example includes following one ship from its initial contract to its voyages and all the issues and planning that happened in between. And this work covers so many topics that influenced the EIC, such as religion, medicine, philosophy, nationalism, politics, and even Shakespeare. Because of the wide breadth of discussion in this book, at times it felt a little convoluted and was easy to lose track of the main thread of discussion. This wasn’t the most approachable work of history I’ve read but it was quite informative.
Probably what I found most interesting in this work was the exploration and comparison of different countries. There were many instances where certain approaches of the EIC were compared to those of Spain, the Portuguese, and the Dutch. I also enjoyed the details included about how the EIC tried to approach all countries with the same tactics, and how poorly this worked when they tried to set up shop in Japan – this was probably the most interesting section of the work for me. I also enjoyed the author’s writing style and the dry humor that was prevalent throughout the book.
I was disappointed by the lack of discussion surrounding women and race in this book. I’m sure this was partly since the EIC was largely made up of white males, but there were two instances when the author mentioned that women played a much larger role than traditionally thought in the EIC. However, that was the extent of the exploration of that topic. And there was no discussion of race, which led me to assume that the only members or people in Europe who influenced the EIC were white, but as it was never explicitly stated or explored, I’m not sure about that.
This work is quite dense and a little convoluted, but it is still digestible. I recommend it if you enjoy getting into the nitty gritty details of endeavors such as this or are interested in the birth of this company and this time of exploration for Europe. My thanks to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
This work explores the rise of the East India Company from its origins with the Tudors to its heated rivalry with the Dutch. It examines how the Company compared to others of similar kind, the ways it excelled and failed, and how it led to future British colonization. It was also an interesting look at how advances in navigation led to an explosion of European nationalism. The author challenges some preconceived notions with this work surrounding the EIC. The author claims that the EIC's original goals did not include colonization, and that it was not destined to succeed from the beginning. In fact, there was very little planning and preparedness in the early days of the EIC despite it becoming a powerhouse in later decades.
Chapter One was a good broad stroke of how the book was going to be set up, and from there, each chapter went into detail surrounding the rise and difficulties the company faced. The amount of detail in this work is massive. An example includes following one ship from its initial contract to its voyages and all the issues and planning that happened in between. And this work covers so many topics that influenced the EIC, such as religion, medicine, philosophy, nationalism, politics, and even Shakespeare. Because of the wide breadth of discussion in this book, at times it felt a little convoluted and was easy to lose track of the main thread of discussion. This wasn’t the most approachable work of history I’ve read but it was quite informative.
Probably what I found most interesting in this work was the exploration and comparison of different countries. There were many instances where certain approaches of the EIC were compared to those of Spain, the Portuguese, and the Dutch. I also enjoyed the details included about how the EIC tried to approach all countries with the same tactics, and how poorly this worked when they tried to set up shop in Japan – this was probably the most interesting section of the work for me. I also enjoyed the author’s writing style and the dry humor that was prevalent throughout the book.
I was disappointed by the lack of discussion surrounding women and race in this book. I’m sure this was partly since the EIC was largely made up of white males, but there were two instances when the author mentioned that women played a much larger role than traditionally thought in the EIC. However, that was the extent of the exploration of that topic. And there was no discussion of race, which led me to assume that the only members or people in Europe who influenced the EIC were white, but as it was never explicitly stated or explored, I’m not sure about that.
This work is quite dense and a little convoluted, but it is still digestible. I recommend it if you enjoy getting into the nitty gritty details of endeavors such as this or are interested in the birth of this company and this time of exploration for Europe. My thanks to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
April 29, 2024
Howarth is one of my favorite historians I never hear anyone talk about. This book has niche appeal. You have to be interested in the Age of Exploration, but not in a "Master and Commander" sense of making it about sailing, nautical details, the Royal Navy, life on a ship, etc. You have to be into it for the list of exotic spices, for the appeal to the imagination of the idea of opening trade in a distant port, the images of bolts of luxurious cloth spilling over the hands, etc.
It's a history about merchants and trade and business. There's a lot of adventure but mostly in the way of negotiating deals, defying the Papists, gambling it all on a new trade route.
Howarth uses a very different writing style in this vs. his other books. His sentences are Old World - long, complicated, rich with metaphor and puns. He uses a very high vocabulary and when he quotes from primary sources I think I understand why he did it - he wrote this book in the same style that a Factor of the EIC wrote letters back to the home office circa 1700.
Great book for those who are interested in the material.
It's a history about merchants and trade and business. There's a lot of adventure but mostly in the way of negotiating deals, defying the Papists, gambling it all on a new trade route.
Howarth uses a very different writing style in this vs. his other books. His sentences are Old World - long, complicated, rich with metaphor and puns. He uses a very high vocabulary and when he quotes from primary sources I think I understand why he did it - he wrote this book in the same style that a Factor of the EIC wrote letters back to the home office circa 1700.
Great book for those who are interested in the material.
February 10, 2023
'Adventurers' tells the story of the improbable rise of history's most notorious company, from its international, intellectual and cultural origins in the sixteenth century through to its first great challenges during the reigns of James I and Charles I. It is an astonishing tale - to match an astonishing journey - that is almost always overlooked in the popular histories of the East India Company. Yet despite its seeming insignificance in some of these grander narratives, focused as they are on the exploits of the likes of Robert Clive and Warren Hastings, it is by no means uninteresting - or irrelevant.
We all think we know the East India Company, the go-to 'baddie' of everything from serious histories to 'Pirates of the Caribbean': determinedly evil, mercenary, dictatorial, cruel, and very nearly unstoppable. We know so much about the crimes it committed, the problems it caused, the casual and particular racism brought about through concerted efforts at colonising and disdaining native populations. And we read this knowledge, our opinions, backward to the EIC's very beginning: a plant this wicked must be stinking to its core, to its roots.
'Adventurers' successfully challenges this dominant narrative. Unlike some other companies - both English and foreign - the fledgling EIC was not driven by a need to colonise or subjugate, but by greed alone. Whether the grasping jealousy of the first Company members is something to be applauded is beside the point and, indeed, anachronistic judgements that tell us more about our own time than theirs are left out almost entirely. As David Howarth succinctly, and correctly, states, 'historians would do well to look resolutely forwards, not backwards.' We should not read our own 20-20 hindsight back onto something that the protagonists could never have foreseen. This is one of the author's main bugbears and, quite possibly, one of the drivers behind his initial putting of pen to paper. Other bugbears are equally clear: the furore over the Amboyna 'Massacre' is neatly dissected; the disdain for the early Stuart kings drips in ever-present manner from the page.
The other element of historians employing hindsight is the assumption that the EIC was bound to succeed, to become a huge and defining influence in the modern world. Howarth questions the notion that, as William Dalrymple suggests in the subtitle of his most recent book on the Company, the rise of the EIC was somehow relentless, a foregone conclusion. I can't be sure that Howarth has in fact read 'The Anarchy', the book whose title has caused so much offence, for the impression I have garnered from both is that there was nothing more certain in those early years of the Company's life than that it was doomed to die an early death. The immense uphill struggle just to get the Company up and running - bearing in mind that its first governor was lucky to escape the hangman's noose following the Essex Rebellion - let alone the enormity of the task of catching up with, and then overtaking, rivals who had been much more successful for a much longer period, is breathtaking in its unlikelihood. Luck, and the right people at the right time, are what kept the EIC going.
These are the points that Howarth wants to stress, and he's done a fantastic job of it. Characters are multi-coloured and multi-faceted, draped in English wool and Eastern silk, carrying Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs' in one hand and life-sized pictures of naked ladies in the other. While there is judgement, there is no prejudice and the movers and shakers from across the globe are introduced to us in all their complex glory, seen as they would have been by their contemporaries, warts and all. There is humour and joy in relating the tale; alongside the thorough knowledge of early modern economics and Company sources, there is a wit and lightness of touch that makes the reader want to explore further. There are, of course, questions that remain: as Howarth freely admits, much more needs to be written, for example, on the role of women or the society of the factors. And, I must admit, I feel a little bit cheated that the journey stopped when it did: the full impact of the reign of Charles I, of the civil wars and the Protectorate, as well as the Restoration, all need attention. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there might, at some point, be a further volume to continue the story. Perhaps Howarth, rather like those first Adventurers he describes so well, will have just the right amount of intrepid bravery and insanity to attempt it.
We all think we know the East India Company, the go-to 'baddie' of everything from serious histories to 'Pirates of the Caribbean': determinedly evil, mercenary, dictatorial, cruel, and very nearly unstoppable. We know so much about the crimes it committed, the problems it caused, the casual and particular racism brought about through concerted efforts at colonising and disdaining native populations. And we read this knowledge, our opinions, backward to the EIC's very beginning: a plant this wicked must be stinking to its core, to its roots.
'Adventurers' successfully challenges this dominant narrative. Unlike some other companies - both English and foreign - the fledgling EIC was not driven by a need to colonise or subjugate, but by greed alone. Whether the grasping jealousy of the first Company members is something to be applauded is beside the point and, indeed, anachronistic judgements that tell us more about our own time than theirs are left out almost entirely. As David Howarth succinctly, and correctly, states, 'historians would do well to look resolutely forwards, not backwards.' We should not read our own 20-20 hindsight back onto something that the protagonists could never have foreseen. This is one of the author's main bugbears and, quite possibly, one of the drivers behind his initial putting of pen to paper. Other bugbears are equally clear: the furore over the Amboyna 'Massacre' is neatly dissected; the disdain for the early Stuart kings drips in ever-present manner from the page.
The other element of historians employing hindsight is the assumption that the EIC was bound to succeed, to become a huge and defining influence in the modern world. Howarth questions the notion that, as William Dalrymple suggests in the subtitle of his most recent book on the Company, the rise of the EIC was somehow relentless, a foregone conclusion. I can't be sure that Howarth has in fact read 'The Anarchy', the book whose title has caused so much offence, for the impression I have garnered from both is that there was nothing more certain in those early years of the Company's life than that it was doomed to die an early death. The immense uphill struggle just to get the Company up and running - bearing in mind that its first governor was lucky to escape the hangman's noose following the Essex Rebellion - let alone the enormity of the task of catching up with, and then overtaking, rivals who had been much more successful for a much longer period, is breathtaking in its unlikelihood. Luck, and the right people at the right time, are what kept the EIC going.
These are the points that Howarth wants to stress, and he's done a fantastic job of it. Characters are multi-coloured and multi-faceted, draped in English wool and Eastern silk, carrying Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs' in one hand and life-sized pictures of naked ladies in the other. While there is judgement, there is no prejudice and the movers and shakers from across the globe are introduced to us in all their complex glory, seen as they would have been by their contemporaries, warts and all. There is humour and joy in relating the tale; alongside the thorough knowledge of early modern economics and Company sources, there is a wit and lightness of touch that makes the reader want to explore further. There are, of course, questions that remain: as Howarth freely admits, much more needs to be written, for example, on the role of women or the society of the factors. And, I must admit, I feel a little bit cheated that the journey stopped when it did: the full impact of the reign of Charles I, of the civil wars and the Protectorate, as well as the Restoration, all need attention. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there might, at some point, be a further volume to continue the story. Perhaps Howarth, rather like those first Adventurers he describes so well, will have just the right amount of intrepid bravery and insanity to attempt it.
December 26, 2024
Intricately researched and referenced, this is a fascinating insight into the origins of this iconic business and slice of history, exploring the political, personal, and commercial drivers.
Told more like a history text book than a story, this is nonetheless a tale with so many plot twists that you could be forgiven for thinking that the East India Company almost became commercially viable in spite of itself.
History writ large.
Told more like a history text book than a story, this is nonetheless a tale with so many plot twists that you could be forgiven for thinking that the East India Company almost became commercially viable in spite of itself.
History writ large.
October 28, 2025
Really dense story of the East India Company. Not filled with the numbers and dates generally found in a history, this is all about personalities and politics. The Company was not actually much interested in India, it was just a convenient stopping point on the way to what was to the East of it; the Spice Islands. Unfortunately, the Spice Islands had been claimed and settled by Portugal and Holland twenty years before the Company ever got there. Holland and Portugal saw the Islands as extensions of their empires and set up forts and colonies. The Company followed the Ferengi model, profit first, second, and always. For the next 40 years or so the Company tried to get a foothold in the East Indies, fighting the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Spanish, also the Persians and the Japanese, all the while fending off the advances of King James I. Somewhere along the way somebody noticed that there was a good deal of money to be made in this India place.
Long sections on the politics of the times, economics, and biographies of important personages. Also, some history of naval medicine, Moscow, and cloves. Jumps all over the place in time and spends overmuch wordage on just anybody who is tangentially connected to the subject. Very informative but not what I would have expected from Howarth. Usually he can give extra details while still staying on the subject, here not so much.
Long sections on the politics of the times, economics, and biographies of important personages. Also, some history of naval medicine, Moscow, and cloves. Jumps all over the place in time and spends overmuch wordage on just anybody who is tangentially connected to the subject. Very informative but not what I would have expected from Howarth. Usually he can give extra details while still staying on the subject, here not so much.
September 19, 2025
As histories on the East India Company (EIC) go, Howarth’s addition provides incredible detail on the early history of the company (its first 50 years or so) and its main characters. The crux of Adventurers is that: the rise of the EIC into the political, military and economic behemoth of the 19th century was not clear or intentional at its origins, it was improbable. Had this book come out two decades ago, its premise might have seemed daring. However, it merely rehashes what has long been consensus. On its own this is not damnable, but Adventurers is hampered by a stifling air of British exceptionalism and cheap gibes. Unfortunately for Howarth, he is less likely to receive chuckles than he earns groans.
January 5, 2025
This was a delightful book, telling an interesting story about the very very rocky start of the East India company which survived its first 100 years almost in spite of itself. The prose is excellent, even hilarious, and the characters really come alive in all their faults and glory as do the times. I can't give it five stars because the narrative is poorly structured and not very coherent. So it comes across more as a series of anecdotes than a linear narrative, still a cracking read.
September 12, 2024
An extremely well researched book that I will recommend to no one.
Disjointed and obtuse, the author spent as much time setting alliterations as he did history.
The breath and scope of the subject was far exceeded to the point of confusion.
Disjointed and obtuse, the author spent as much time setting alliterations as he did history.
The breath and scope of the subject was far exceeded to the point of confusion.
August 10, 2024
Starts off promising, but in the end loses itself into elaborate detail whilst jumping back and forth from Elisabethan England to Cromwell, making it rather disjointed
June 17, 2023
Everyone thinks of the East India Company as the instrument of empire and behemoth that let the English rule India for 200 years. But it almost didn't get that far, starting as the East Indies Trading Company (a very different part of the world), with a lot of misfires both there and in unexpected areas like the Red Sea which could have sunk it altogether. And far from being an instrument of empire, the English establishment regarded it as an irritation. This book covers those decades from the start to the late 1600s when India was barely on the table and the company only just managed to keep going by a series of events that might be due to luck or someone else's bad planning but can scarcely be put down to skill and good management at home.
On that basis, it's very interesting - but the author's style isn't half convoluted. Fewer words and easier sentences would have got him another star.
On that basis, it's very interesting - but the author's style isn't half convoluted. Fewer words and easier sentences would have got him another star.
June 29, 2025
This book is packed with references, perfect for anyone wanting to dive into history, especially about the EIC, and looking for scattered sources to dig deeper. You can totally do some reference snowballing from what's listed here. The storytelling is also pretty detailed.
But the writing style is kinda hard to follow, too wordy, especially for someone like me whose English isn’t even a second language. So yeah, reading it can get pretty exhausting.
This book opens with the story of how the East India Company (EIC) was founded, basically a joint venture by a bunch of investors who backed a crew of not-so-experienced sailors compared to their competitors. Their journey was anything but smooth. They faced all sorts of challenges, and many didn’t even survive the trip, all in the hope of reaching the Spice Islands and setting up a trade outpost.
At the time, English sailors were still living in the shadow of their Spanish and Portuguese rivals, who had already been sailing around the world and had more experience. But the English had a different mindset. Unlike the Spanish and Portuguese, who mixed trade with spreading religion and asserting dominance, the English were more business-focused; they were in it for the profit.
The book dives deep into the formation of the EIC, covering both the troubles at sea and the issues faced by office staff back on land. It also explores things like how women weren’t allowed to join voyages. One major difference between the EIC and the explorers before them? The money. The EIC generated huge profits.
While Spain and Portugal were the first rivals, the real competition over time became the Dutch VOC. There are plenty of stories in the book about the rivalry and, at times, cooperation between the EIC and VOC. Eventually, the EIC took control of India, while the VOC ruled over the Indies, modern-day Indonesia.
But the writing style is kinda hard to follow, too wordy, especially for someone like me whose English isn’t even a second language. So yeah, reading it can get pretty exhausting.
This book opens with the story of how the East India Company (EIC) was founded, basically a joint venture by a bunch of investors who backed a crew of not-so-experienced sailors compared to their competitors. Their journey was anything but smooth. They faced all sorts of challenges, and many didn’t even survive the trip, all in the hope of reaching the Spice Islands and setting up a trade outpost.
At the time, English sailors were still living in the shadow of their Spanish and Portuguese rivals, who had already been sailing around the world and had more experience. But the English had a different mindset. Unlike the Spanish and Portuguese, who mixed trade with spreading religion and asserting dominance, the English were more business-focused; they were in it for the profit.
The book dives deep into the formation of the EIC, covering both the troubles at sea and the issues faced by office staff back on land. It also explores things like how women weren’t allowed to join voyages. One major difference between the EIC and the explorers before them? The money. The EIC generated huge profits.
While Spain and Portugal were the first rivals, the real competition over time became the Dutch VOC. There are plenty of stories in the book about the rivalry and, at times, cooperation between the EIC and VOC. Eventually, the EIC took control of India, while the VOC ruled over the Indies, modern-day Indonesia.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews