[East India Company.] Printed Counterpart Indenture, completed in manuscript and sealed, between ‘Sir John Edward Harington of Berkeley Square Baronet’ and ‘the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East-Indies’.

The East India Company has come under renewed scrutiny in recent years as ‘the world’s first multinational’: an early model of the acquisition of hegemony by means of transnational non-governmental corporations. 2pp, foolscap 8vo. On bifolium of thick laid paper, whose head has been cut into the customary wave. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice into the customary packet. On the recto of the first leaf is the long printed form ‘Indenture’ with blank parts completed in manuscript. Red wax seal under paper at bottom right. Endorsement on reverse of second leaf gives the purport: ‘24th Jany. 1812 / Counterpart / Covenant by the Surety of Mr. Edward John Harington appointed a Writer that his appointment has not been procured by corrupt means with an engagement in case of breach thereof to pay £3000 to the East India Company as liquidated Damages’.