Managing Agency Capitalism and Malayan Rubber: Harrisons & Crosfield, Ltd. (1900–1940)

The Chinese and Indian Corporate Economies: A Comparative History of Their Search for Economic Renaissance and Globalization by Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown, London, Routledge, 2017, xvii + 471 pp.

“…By becoming agents of their industrial companies, entrepreneurs could easily authorize, in self‐signed up agency contracts, their permanent agency tenure and lucrative agency commissions usually settled on 3% to 5% of the sales except Tata who adopted 10% of profits and paid monthly in cash as a first priority. British company law (1856) gave company directors unrestricted authority to appoint management officers, including the “agents” and to offer them powers, remuneration, and tenure “as far as the directors may think fit” (Koike , pp. 77–78).…”