William Durnpole

by the Dutch.

And this is, it turns out, and we'll come back to this in future episodes, this is the thing that actually makes these companies fortune.

Because from this point, spices begin to decline in value because they're not going through five hands anymore.

And the process by which you can buy nutmeg for five quid in Sainsbury's today or Asda is already beginning to take place.

But the English in India, 1640, this sort of period, is when the Taj Mahal is coming up.

The Mughals are at their peak.

A million looms are at work in Bengal.

And the English, as their consolation prize, without anything better to do because they've been thrown out from what they actually want, end up completely by chance with the richest possible colony and trading partner imaginable.

Who, incidentally, we've met before in the very dodgy action of setting up the Royal Africa Company, which is the big slave trading operation, which the royal family have a monopoly in.

And he has to talk to, and this is the important personality we need to introduce, tell us, Giles, about Peg Leg Pete.

King Charles talking to the Duke of York about New York.

What could possibly go wrong?

So Giles, when you wrote this book, this was a book that really made your career, wasn't it?

It was a book which took off in a spectacular way and in America as well as in Britain.

It did.

We had the same agent at the time.

I remember her saying, your books aren't doing that in those days.

But since then, 25 years later, and you've just had two years ago, the 25th anniversary edition of Nats Nuts, which has got a brilliant new introduction.

In that time, a lot has changed in the world, but in particular, we've seen the rise of these giant corporations that have annual profit margins the size of the GDP of entire continents.

Do you see warnings from this period and parallels with that period today?