'No distinction exists as to religion, profession, or sex': Imperial Reform and the Electoral Culture of the East India Company's Court of Proprietors, 1760-84
'No distinction exists as to religion, profession, or sex': Imperial Reform and the Electoral Culture of the East India Company's Court of Proprietors, 1760-84
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“宗教、职业或性别不存在任何区别”：帝国改革和东印度公司业主法院的选举文化，1760-84 年
DOI：
10.1111/1750-0206.12726
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发表时间：
2024
影响因子：
0.2
通讯作者：
Gilding B
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gilding B
正如同时代的人经常指出的那样，英国东印度公司的管理机构包含了一种几乎前所未有的“民主”元素。他们指的是公司的业主总法院，这是公司的主权审议机构，由所有东印度股东组成。拥有一定比例的股票，就有权参与辩论、对政策进行投票，并每年选举管理公司日常事务的董事。这些选举权完全是通过股份所有权授予的，不分性别、社会地位、国籍或宗教。本文探讨了妇女、非英国人和宗教少数群体如何利用18世纪60年代东印度公司总法院政治化所开辟的政治参与机会，以及同时代人在议会和新闻界讨论和辩论的方式。追溯玛丽巴威尔，威廉博尔特和约瑟夫萨尔瓦多的政治活动提供了一个独特的窗口，以各种方式，该公司提供了一个替代场所的政治活动的团体，否则往往被排除在正式的政治在威斯敏斯特。在这样做的过程中，它也显示了该公司的总法院的民主元素如何在塑造1767年至1784年的东印度公司的改革中发挥了重要作用，这一过程最终导致了他们的削减。
As contemporaries frequently pointed out, and often in disparaging terms, the governing institutions of the British East India Company contained an almost unprecedented ‘democratical’ element. By this, they were referring to the Company's General Court of Proprietors, its sovereign deliberative body, composed of all East India stockholders. Ownership of certain proportions of stock conferred the rights to participate in debate, to vote on policy, and to elect on an annual basis the directors who governed the day‐to‐day affairs of the Company. These electoral rights were granted solely by virtue of stock‐ownership and made no distinctions based on sex, social status, nationality or religion. This article examines the ways in which women, non‐Britons and religious minorities, in particular, took advantage of the opportunities for political participation opened up by the politicisation of the East India Company's general court in the 1760s, as well as the ways in which this was discussed and debated by contemporaries both in parliament and the press. Tracing the political activities of Mary Barwell, William Bolts and Joseph Salvador provides a unique window into a variety of ways in which the Company offered an alternative venue for political activity for groups often otherwise excluded from the formal politics at Westminster. In doing so, it also shows how the democratic elements of the Company's general court played a significant role in shaping the reform of the East India Company between 1767 and 1784, a process which ultimately led to their curtailment.