The significance of the state’s fiscal system for military capacity, colonization, trade, and economic development is a long-studied topic. Much scholarship has focused on Britain and the emergence of its fiscal-military state. This article shows that fiscal capacity was not created only by government bureaucracies: the ‘company-state at home’ model presented here complements the narrative of the ‘fiscal-military state’ by showing that much fiscal revenue from trade was realized through the action of the English East India Company (EIC). Lacking the capacity to enact exhaustive laws, carry out complex calculations, or effectively manage a large bureaucracy, the English state relied on the administrative capacity of the EIC to collect customs on the East Indies trade. The institutional solution of allowing the EIC to collect revenues overcame the administrative challenge of customs revenue collection. This solution was made possible by the EIC’s administrative capacities and sustained by alignment between Company and state interests. The role of the EIC in British state development suggests a symbiotic lens through which to study the relationship between the state and corporations, which can be applied across time, space, and state objectives.

中文翻译：

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国内的公司-国家：18 世纪英国的东印度公司和财政制度


国家财政制度对军事能力、殖民化、贸易和经济发展的重要性是一个长期研究的话题。许多学术研究都集中在英国及其财政军事国家的崛起上。本文表明，财政能力不仅仅是由政府官僚机构创造的：这里介绍的“国内公司-国家”模型补充了“财政-军事国家”的叙述，表明贸易的大部分财政收入是通过英国东印度公司 （EIC） 的行动实现的。由于缺乏颁布详尽法律、进行复杂计算或有效管理庞大官僚机构的能力，英国政府依靠 EIC 的行政能力来征收东印度群岛贸易的关税。允许 EIC 征收税收的制度解决方案克服了海关税收的行政挑战。这一解决方案是由 EIC 的管理能力实现的，并通过公司和国家利益之间的协调来维持。EIC 在英国国家发展中的作用表明了一个共生视角，通过该视角来研究国家与公司之间的关系，可以应用于时间、空间和国家目标。