David Veevers is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. He has published articles in the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History and the Journal of Global History, and won the Royal Historical Society's Alexander Prize in 2014. He is co-editor of The Corporation as a Protagonist in Global History, c.1550 to 1750 (2018).

Introduction. 'A hundred gates open for entrance'; Part I. Weakness and Adaptation: 1. 'A boddy without a head': the failure of an English enterprise; 2. 'Soe fayre an opportunitie': Madras and the reconstitution of the company; 3. 'Not as absolute lords and kings of the place': the success of an Anglo-Asian enterprise; Part II. Subordination and Expansion: 4. 'To be determined by the Moor's justice': searching for legitimacy in Mughal Bengal; 5. 'A firm settlement in this place': war, negotiation and imperial integration; Part III. Limitations and Devastation: 6. 'The Malays will not preserve ye countrey themselves': Sumatra and the failure of suzerainty; 7. 'The company as their lords and the deputy as a great Rajah': the making and unmaking of an imperial power; Part IV. Empire: 8. 'The end of these things will not be good': legacies of empire in mid-eighteenth century India; Conclusion. Rethinking the origins of the British Empire in Asia.