IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/bushst/v59y2017i4p525-553.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rehabilitating the intermediary: brokers and auctioneers in the nineteenth-century Anglo-Indian trade

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Aldous

Abstract

The complications of long-distance trade restricted the expansion of the Anglo-Indian trade in the first half of the nineteenth century. The take-off occurred after 1850, and can be correlated to the growing number of brokers and auctioneers. This article analyses the role and effects of these intermediaries, drawing on information economics theory. A new data-set shows that volatility in supply, demand and price of indigo was reduced by half as the number of intermediaries quadrupled. Analysis shows that they were uniquely placed to reduce information asymmetries significantly improving market co-ordination. These findings positively reassess the importance of these organisations and have implications for understanding the evolution of long-distance trade in the nineteenth century.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Aldous, 2017. "Rehabilitating the intermediary: brokers and auctioneers in the nineteenth-century Anglo-Indian trade," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(4), pages 525-553, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:59:y:2017:i:4:p:525-553
    DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1220939
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00076791.2016.1220939
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00076791.2016.1220939?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chapman,Stanley, 2004. "Merchant Enterprise in Britain," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521893626, October.
    2. Jones, Geoffrey, 2000. "Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the 19th and 20th Centuries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198294504.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Buchnea, Emily & Elsahn, Ziad, 2022. "Historical social network analysis: Advancing new directions for international business research," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Teresa da Silva Lopes & Mark Casson & Geoffrey Jones, 2019. "Organizational innovation in the multinational enterprise: Internalization theory and business history," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(8), pages 1338-1358, October.
    2. Andrew David Allan Smith, 2014. "A successful British MNE in the backyard of American big business: Explaining the performance of the American and Canadian subsidiaries of Lever Brothers 1888-1914," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 135-160, March.
    3. Apicha Chutipongpisit, 2022. "The Siamese rice trade during the interwar years: Trade pattern, crisis and business survival," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 211-233, November.
    4. Andrew Dilley, 2010. "‘The rules of the game’: London finance, Australia, and Canada, c.1900–14," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 63(4), pages 1003-1031, November.
    5. Hinh T. Dinh, 2017. "Jobs, Industrialization, and Globalization," Books & Reports, Policy Center for the New South, number 22, October.
    6. Mahdi Tajeddin & Michael Carney, 2019. "African Business Groups: How Does Group Affiliation Improve SMEs’ Export Intensity?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(6), pages 1194-1222, November.
    7. Asli M. Colpan & Takashi Hikino, 2016. "Diversified Business Groups in the West: History and Theory," Harvard Business School Working Papers 17-035, Harvard Business School.
    8. Aldunate, Felipe & González, Felipe & Prem, Mounu & Urzúa, Francisco, 2020. "Privatization and business groups: Evidence from the Chicago Boys in Chile," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Yan-Jie Yang & Jungpao Kang & Ruey-Ching Lin & Joshua Ronen, 2016. "Auditor selection within a business group: evidence from Taiwan," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 195-215, February.
    10. Miguel Á. López-Morell & José M. O'kean, 2014. "Rothschilds' strategies in international non-ferrous metals markets, 1830–1940," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(3), pages 720-749, August.
    11. Toms, Steven, 2017. "Network preferences and the growth of the British cotton textile industry, c.1780-1914," MPRA Paper 80058, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Ryo Izawa, 2018. "Corporate Structural Change for Tax Avoidance: British Multinational Enterprises and International Double Taxation between the First and Second World Wars," Discussion Papers CRR Discussion Paper Series A: General 33, Shiga University, Faculty of Economics,Center for Risk Research.
    13. Len J Treviño & Jonathan P Doh, 2021. "Internationalization of the firm: A discourse-based view," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(7), pages 1375-1393, September.
    14. Peter J. Buckley, 2016. "Historical Research Approaches to the Analysis of Internationalisation," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 879-900, December.
    15. Barnard, Helena & Luiz, John M., 2018. "Escape FDI and the dynamics of a cumulative process of institutional misalignment and contestation: Stress, strain and failure," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 605-619.
    16. Geoffrey G. Jones, 2015. "Business Groups Exist in Developed Markets Also: Britain Since 1850," Harvard Business School Working Papers 16-066, Harvard Business School.
    17. Maria Carmela Schisani & Francesca Caiazzo, 2016. "Networks of power and networks of capital: evidence from a peripheral area of the first globalisation. The energy sector in Naples: from gas to electricity (1862-1919)," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(2), pages 207-243, March.
    18. Mar�a In�s Barbero & Nuria Puig, 2016. "Business groups around the world: an introduction," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(1), pages 6-29, January.
    19. Manuel Llorca-Jaña, 2011. "The organisation of British textile exports to the River Plate and Chile: Merchant houses in operation, c. 1810--59," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(6), pages 821-865, October.
    20. Asli M. Colpan & Geoffrey G. Jones, 2014. "Entrepreneurship and Business Groups: An Evolutionary Perspective on the Growth of the Koç Group in Turkey," Harvard Business School Working Papers 15-035, Harvard Business School.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:59:y:2017:i:4:p:525-553. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FBSH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.