WI Roman East India Company

After the establishment of the Roman Empire, the trade in luxury goods between the Egypt and the western coast of India exploded. It became such a big deal that scholars like Pliny the Elder bemoaned the fact that at the very least a million sesterces were being spent every year so that the Roman upper classes could indulge themselves. The reason why the Romans had to pay for everything with gold directly was because much like the British with the Chinese before the Opium war, they had very little that the Indians wanted.

What if to rectify this problem a band of Roman merchants (with imperial backing off course) had began to establish 'factories' in India to produce goods that the Roman market required ?
 
Interesting- I'm sure the Roman publicanii could have made a lot of money out of this, which makes me half wonder if it did happen in OTL. I seem to remember reading something about it, but I'm not sure...

The impacts, I don't think, would be colossal, given that this sort of busy trade obviously existed IOTL, and Rome is not going to be able to establish direct rule over such a distance with Roman era communications. Christianity is unlikely to take off in India any more than it did IOTL, and I don't think Hinduism in Rome is particuarly likely. Though if it did, that would be spectacuarly cool. Hindu Roman Empire? It's crying out for a TL!
 
and Rome is not going to be able to establish direct rule over such a distance with Roman era communications.

Why?

Obviously, it's not easy, but the early Europeans had to rely on communication by sailing around Africa, the Romans could sail more directly. I'd assume that this should make up lower sailing technology. Furthermore, Rome, at least in its early days, had a by far better bureaucacy established. Provincial governors were rather autonomous and would be a role model for the leader of such factories. And then the Romans had no problems in taking over better ideas, thus if it's about sailing technology, I think we'd soon see improvements according to what the Asians have in usage.
 
What if to rectify this problem a band of Roman merchants (with imperial backing off course) had began to establish 'factories' in India to produce goods that the Roman market required ?

One problem is that there were already merchant communities in India producing the same goods and making a lot of money out of it. They are unlikely to accept any new merchants coming to their land and undercutting their profit.

Why?

Obviously, it's not easy, but the early Europeans had to rely on communication by sailing around Africa, the Romans could sail more directly. I'd assume that this should make up lower sailing technology.

Militarily it would be very difficult for Roman Empire to conquer India. Unlike with the EIC, during Roman times the technological gap between Indian and European armies were not that huge. It would be very difficult for small Roman Expeditionary force to defeat large armies fielded by local empires.
 
Militarily it would be very difficult for Roman Empire to conquer India. Unlike with the EIC, during Roman times the technological gap between Indian and European armies were not that huge. It would be very difficult for small Roman Expeditionary force to defeat large armies fielded by local empires.

Well, I wasn't speaking about outright conquering India, but rather the same approach the various India Companies followed IOTL: establishing trade outposts and then enlarging them into smaller neighbouring states.
 
The merchant class of the Roman Empire was also its military class-the knights served as soldiers and publicanii. Even those who were commercially minded were constantly looking out for a chance to get some office or another. It was much in their interests to play safe and just make loads of money off of taxation rather than invest in some unlikely scheme that may or may not give results.

Furthermore, publicanii only had a limited tenure in office, and it would take a very long time for trade links with India and the Indies to bear profits, by which time the foreward thinking knight would either be a magistrate somewhere else in the empire or a laughing stock.
 
Well, I wasn't speaking about outright conquering India, but rather the same approach the various India Companies followed IOTL: establishing trade outposts and then enlarging them into smaller neighbouring states.

That's very unlikely to work. The Romans have very limited maritime capacity in the Indian Ocean. Yes, they can reach India and settle there, and they probably did OTL, but the idea of getting enough military force across to become a serious player is very iffy. Add to this the problem with private armies - a military force strong enough to dominate chunks of Indias is strong enough to be a problem back home. Then there is the problem that just trying to control bits of another ruler's territory is not necessarily going to be welcomed. British historians created this narrative that India was just there for the taking, but it wasn't, and there's no reason to think it was in Roman times. And finally - why? It's expensive, risky, potentially hugwely embarrassing, and you aren't going to gain much by it.
 
Thanks to everyone for replying
Interesting- I'm sure the Roman publicanii could have made a lot of money out of this, which makes me half wonder if it did happen in OTL. I seem to remember reading something about it, but I'm not sure...

From all I have read although there were significant communities of Roman Expatriates in India. However there doesn't seem to be much that came out of their presence that we know of....

I don't think Hinduism in Rome is particuarly likely. Though if it did, that would be spectacuarly cool.
Instead of Hinduism, what if someone repackages Buddhism into something that could be palatable for Roman tastes. I can see a religion of quiet contemplation doing well with the likes of the Stoics or the Neo-Platonists.

Horizon said:
One problem is that there were already merchant communities in India producing the same goods and making a lot of money out of it. They are unlikely to accept any new merchants coming to their land and undercutting their profit.
But the thing is any organised Roman company is going to have a clear conduit to the Roman elites market, something the native merchants do not have direct access to. With such a wellspring of demand at their backs, the Roman merchants would feel confident in spending large amounts of resources in procuring the means of production.

Monty Burns said:
And then the Romans had no problems in taking over better ideas, thus if it's about sailing technology, I think we'd soon see improvements according to what the Asians have in usage.
But the thing is there isn't much the Romans could have adopted.At the end of the day any attempt by a Roman EIC to snatch any kind of power would be a numbers game, something they are not going to win.

Actually I think that one piece of technology that the Romans would want to adopt would be Indian Metal working. IIRC Indian Metal working was much more advanced than that of the Mediteranean world so I can see a concerted effort by the Romans to secure Indian steel or more importantly Indian blacksmiths

I think me using EIC in the the thread title might have given everyone the image of a triumphal colonial expedition sailing out to conquer the outmatched natives. Instead what I am proposing is a more commercial 'soft-power' operation interested in obtaining control of the various means of production while paying off the local Rajah to stay on his good side with an occasional bit of politicking thrown in.

In addition what about the secondary effects such a company could have ? If I'm not mistaken, the formation of East India companies played a big role in the establishments of stock markets. What if something similar were to take place TTL? Or maybe an Alexandrian merchant hoping to market amber in the Indian market starts a company to directly get amber from the barbarian north. Maybe you could eventually have entire tribes geared to finding amber with their chiefs acting as middle managers for the Germania Amber Corporation.
 
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