Was the East india Company a "democratic" organization? Majority principle and power relations in 17th century England

According to a widespread historiographic topos, the English East India Company - the richest, biggest, most powerful and long-lasting of all chartered companies-, was a “democratic” organization. Founded by Queen Elizabeth I on December 31 st 1600, this joint-stock company, originally conceived to import spices and silk from the islands of Southeast Asia, became, during the course of the 18 th century, the main tool of British colonial expansion in the Indian sub-continent, until its liquidation in 1858. In the 17 th  century, though, it still was, essentially, a company of “adventurers” trying to challenge the Portuguese and Dutch merchants in the East-Indies spice race. On the basis of the assumption that to decide by majority means to decide democratically, this essay aims at reconsidering the supposed democracy of the business corporation EIC, by way of the enforcement of the majority principle in modern England. It focuses on three issues: overview of the historiography devoted to the topic; description of the rooting of the principle in England (courts of justice, Parliament and legal-political doctrine, with a particular focus on Locke’s thought); analysis of the development of the voting systems within the EIC in the time-frame 1600-1700. We will see that it was possible to define the EIC as a “democratic” organization, but only at the beginning of its very long history.