When Corporations Assists Governments in Wars

 

One might ask the question ‘Does corporations ever assist governments in wars?' One might then ask ‘What was the earliest time that such a thing took place?' While the following demonstration may not be the first time that such a thing has taken place it certainly is amongst the earliest.

 

We will visit again the work of Hunt Janin titled, The India-China Opium Trade in the Nineteenth Century. After a long period of facing piracy, Commander C. Dalrymple Hay, RN, commanded an operation aboard HM Columbine, an 18-gun brig,[1] assisted by the Peninsular and Oriental (P&O) Steam Navigation Company (P&O Nedloyd folks) aboard their ship Canton and HM gunboat Fury cornered Chiu Apoo, one of two leaders amongst pirate fleets, capturing them and killing more than 400 men. They later destroyed 23 pirate junks[2] and set ablaze the pirates’ shipyards. (Janin, 1999, p. 141)

So, we have:

 1. British Royal Navy

2. Peninsular and Oriental (P&O) Steam Navigation Company

 

Though they are fighting piracy, one of the reasons why they are fighting piracy is to protect the movement of opium, among other goods. We also find that days later along with eight (8) junks of the Chinese navy, the HM gunboat Fury was also assisted by the paddle steamer Phlegethon owned by the East India Company.

Finally, later we find that Shap-‘ng-tsai, the boss of Chiu Apoo, after he was unable to be captured “… was bought off by the Chinese government and rewarded with a job as a naval mandarin.” (Janin, 1999, p. 142)

Oh, how our entities merge at times with an overall goal or goals in mind. Governments, corporations, and at times criminals. Until next time …

 

References

Janin, H. (1999). The India-China Opium Trade in the Nineteenth Century. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers.

Online, O. (2021, April). brig, n.1. Retrieved April 1, 2021, from Oxford University Dictionary: https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/brig

 

 

---

[1] A two-masted, square-rigged ship with an additional gaff sail on the mainmast. (Online, 2021)

[2] Ship