'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.
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...
| Publicado en: | Parliamentary History Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 129 - 148 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Feb2024
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=175669972&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 175669972 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 02642824 8N5 jtl: Parliamentary History issn: 02642824 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Feb2024 vid: 43 iid: 1 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 175669972 10.1111/1750-0206.12726 ppf: 129 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 267KB tig: atl: '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. aug: au: Gilding, Ben su: Elections East India Co. Imperialism Religious minorities Xenophobia Misogyny sug: subj: Elections East India Co. Imperialism Religious minorities Xenophobia Misogyny keyword: democratic culture East India Company empire gender Jews lobbying misogyny religious minorities stockholding xenophobia ab: 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. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Parliamentary History is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Parliamentary History holder: Wiley-Blackwell dt: @attributes: year: 2024 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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