JOHN PALMER & COMPANY were the leading agency house in India during the early nineteenth century, so the organisation and management strategies of the company are of great significance for the imperial and business historian. Their importance lies not only in explaining the central role the agency houses played in the early British colonial economy in the east, but also in the development of social relations between Europeans and Indians during the first half of the nineteenth century. In exploring how Palmer & Co. operated, it is also important to remember that it, like the other houses, was a global business, with commercial connections in India, south-east Asia, China, south Africa, the USA and Europe. In this respect, analysis of how Palmer & Co. organised its affairs offers insights into the development of an early phase of globalisation, in which an expanding, industrialising European economy developed forms of business which not only helped incorporate less developed parts of the world into an emerging global economic system, but also established an institutional framework which permitted the expansion of trade from the more developed economies of Europe and the USA.

To analyse the management and strategies of an agency house, the range of activities in which it was engaged must first be mapped. The multiplicity of business lines of the houses inevitably makes this a complex task. Most houses were involved in shipping, global international trade, commodity investment, as well as a complex range of banking and financial services.