WOMEN AND THE COMPANY: FEMALE AGENCY IN GLOBAL TRADING COMPANIES, 1600-1800

My project examines women's integral role in early modern global capitalism and will question existing perceptions of the formation of the global economy. As trading companies came to span the globe from the seventeenth century onwards, networks consisting of diverse people, holding both formal and informal company roles, shaped the companies' commercial and social policies in Europe and Asia. The project investigates women as investors, trading partners domestically and globally as well as pressuring the companies for their relations' wages in the metropole. While their male relations and networking partners were away, women interacted with the company in Europe and India to ensure survival and increasing wealth for themselves and their networks, which in turn shaped global markets.