It's hard to convey just how incredibly huge and powerful was the East India Company. For example, they used to donate their used time-served warships to the R

It's hard to convey just how incredibly huge and powerful was the East India Company. For example, they used to donate their used time-served warships to the Royal Navy as an act of charity! The closest parallel today would probably be something like a merger between Halliburton and Academi, the varied enterprises of which profit hugely from foreign adventurism of their host state and which have autonomous military potential in excess of that of many countries. But even that would fall well short in terms of revenue. Perhaps throw Apple into that mix as well and you'd get close.