Publications [#365775] of Philip J. Stern

Book Reviews

1. Stern, PJ, Alcohol and the Ambivalence of the Early English East India Company-State, Historical Journal, vol. 65 no. 1 (February, 2022), pp. 185-201 [doi]
   (last updated on 2024/01/01)

   Abstract:
   This article explores the various roles that alcohol played in defining the governance of East India Company fortifications and settlements in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It argues that, much like elsewhere in Europe, Asia, and the colonial world, alcohol was absolutely crucial to political and social life, as well as a source of great revenue and profit for both the Company and individuals who worked for it. At the same time, it was a cause of immense anxiety and concern for Company government, which understood the use (and overuse) of alcohol as a principal sign of potential disorder and disobedience. Far from a contradiction, this ambivalence towards alcohol formed a foundation for a variety of regulatory instruments, from tavern licences to taxation, that were crucial to the establishment of early Company governance and a prime reflection of the Company's very own ambivalent nature as both merchant and sovereign.