We investigate the nature and significance of the vital but neglected “company-states” in helping to facilitate the move from contained regional international systems to the first genuinely global international system. Historically, actors like the Dutch and English East India Companies were crucial in spearheading the first wave of European expansion in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Conceptually, company-states broaden our understanding of international actors. At a time when intra-European politics favored gradual institutional convergence on the sovereign state, the demands of extra-European expansion meanwhile gave rise to diverse competing institutions. Company-states succeeded in an era of weak sovereign states because of their relative efficiency in managing the transaction costs and principal-agent challenges of intercontinental trade and rule. Conversely, company-states later declined as they succumbed to the effects of sharpening worldwide geopolitical competition, and were displaced by increasingly powerful new European empire-building projects. This argument advances earlier work on the creation of the international system by eschewing Eurocentrism and state-centrism, and foregrounding diversity and hybridization.

中文翻译：

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公司国与全球国际体系的建立

我们调查了重要但被忽视的“公司国”在帮助推动从封闭的区域国际体系向第一个真正的全球国际体系转变方面的性质和重要性。从历史上看，像荷兰人和英国东印度公司这样的参与者在引领欧洲在亚洲，非洲和美洲的第一波扩张中起着至关重要的作用。从概念上讲，公司状态扩大了我们对国际行为者的理解。在欧洲内部政治主张主权国家逐步实现机构融合的时候，欧洲以外地区扩张的需求同时也导致了各种竞争性机构。公司国家在主权国家薄弱的时​​代取得了成功，因为它们在管理交易成本方面的相对效率以及洲际贸易和统治的委托代理挑战。相反，公司国家后来屈服于全球地缘政治竞争加剧的影响，并被越来越强大的欧洲帝国建设新项目所取代。该论点通过避开欧洲中心主义和国家中心主义，并着眼于多样性和杂交，推进了有关建立国际体系的早期工作。