In the nineteenth century, a tiny community from the deserts of Rajasthan spread out to every corner of India. The Marwaris controlled much of the country s inland trade by the time of the First World War. They then turned their hand to industry and, by the 1970s, owned most of India s private industrial assets. Today, Marwari businessmen account for a quarter of the Indian names on the Forbes billionaires list. What makes the Marwaris so successful? Is it their indomitable enterprise, or their incredible appetite for risk? In this new book, Thomas Timberg shows how the Marwaris rely on a centuries-old system for conserving and growing capital which has stood them in good stead, alongside a strong sense of business ethics which has earned them respect. Family businesses in general and the Marwaris in particular might have a vital role to play in shaping India s economic future.

The Marwaris: From Jagat Seth to the Birlas

Business & Money

Gurcharan Das (Intro.)

Thomas A. Timberg

Economics

Penguin/Portfolio

The Mouse Merchant: Money In Ancient India

Literature & Fiction

Arshia Sattar

Dramas & Plays

The story of corporate India is linked to managing agencies, an organizational form dominant in the subcontinent from 1875 until its abolition in 1970 that allowed entrepreneurs to promote diverse companies while exercising disproportionate control over cash flows. This is the definitive economic history of Indian companies through the lens of managing agencies, whether controlled by goras or desis.

Goras and Desis: Managing Agencies and the Making of Corporate India

Omkar Goswami

Biography & History

Caravans tells the fascinating story of countless Punjabi Khatri merchants who built great business empires through their ingenuity and spirit of adventure. Operating during the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, these merchants risked everything and travelled across Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran and Russia. They used sophisticated techniques to convert a modest amount of merchandise into vast portfolios for trade and moneylending ventures. Caravans challenges the belief that the rising tide of European trade in the Indian Ocean usurped the overland Silk Road trade, and demonstrates how thousands of Punjabis created a booming market in Central Asia at precisely this historical moment.

Caravans: Punjabi Khatri Merchants On the Silk Road

Scott C. Levi

This book is a definitive introduction to the classic text, the Arthashastra, the world s first manual on political economy. The 2000-year-old treatise is ascribed to Kautilya, the prime minister of King Chandragupta Maurya, and is as important to Indian thought as Machiavelli s The Prince is to Europe. Arthashastra, or the science of wealth , is a study of economic enterprise, and advises the king entrepreneur on how to create prosperity. Thomas Trautmann s exploration of this seminal work illuminates its underlying economic philosophy and provides invaluable lessons for the modern age.

Arthashastra: The Science of Wealth

Thomas R.Trautmann

Three Merchants of Bombay is the story of three intrepid merchants who traded out of Bombay in the nineteenth century Tarwady Arjunjee, Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy and Premchand Roychand founding pioneering business empires based on trade in cotton and opium. Set against the backdrop of global and local economies undergoing rapid and unforeseen change, these stories stand as a microcosm for the history of indigenous capitalism in western India. In this succinct and lucid account, Lakshmi Subramanian traces that history and locates it in the greater narrative of the economic development of India, South Asia and the world.

Three Merchants of Bombay: Business Pioneers of the Nineteenth Century

Lakshmi Subramanian

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Books by Gurcharan Das (Intro.)