The EIC's Forgotten Bank: Currency, Credit and the Birth of Modern Finance

Before the Bank of England or the Wall Street stock exchange, the East India Company invented modern corporate finance. This episode follows the dizzying rise and catastrophic fall of the Company's banking operations in Bengal. Meet the shroffs — Indian money-changers whose gold mohurs and silver rupees backed the entire trade network — and the British factors who built a credit system on opium chests and tea futures. We trace the 1857 bank run that toppled the EIC's financial empire, and ask: was the Company a trading corporation that acted like a government, or a government that acted like a bank? From the silver mines of Potosi to the counting houses of Murshidabad, this is the story of how paper conquered the world. With cameos from Warren Hastings, the Jagat Seth banking family, and the first stock market crash in Indian history. #EastIndiaCompany #FinancialHistory #BengalBanking #JagatSeth #Shroffs #GoldMohur #SilverRupee #WarrenHastings #Murshidabad #PotosiSilver #OpiumTrade #TeaFutures #CreditSystem #1857Revolt #CorporateFinance #StockMarketCrash #History #FexingoHistory #BritishEmpire #RobertClive Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo