Is This A Country Or A Company? COTD

Every once in a while, when your favorite Autopian writers crank out the next article for you to be enjoyed and entertained by, we make a silly mistake or two. Usually, it’s just a typo or a few that we fix and move along with our day. But, sometimes, a small error turns into something hilarious.

Back at the old site, a headline I wrote was changed before publishing, and what came out of the other end made for an unfortunately funny introduction to the then-new Volkswagen Golf R. Thankfully, we caught and fixed that pretty quickly. Look, those 31 horses are working really hard.

Today, our Matt Hardigree had his own gaffe when he accidentally referred to the UK as a company as he explained the country’s rollback of its ICE sales ban. Reader …getstoneyII noticed it:

“…the Tory government of PM Sunak has pulled what critics are calling a “U-turn” on the company’s …”

“…and risk the company’s long-term industrial position.”

Even though these may be Freudian slips, it still sums up the whole EV thing nicely. It’s never been about the environment, it’s about creating a new economic marketplace to supplement the super-saturated ICE market, only with countries acting as bigger “companies.”

All these government mandates are gonna end up being a huge waste of time, energy(ha), and money.

Icouldntfindaclevername responded:

In other news, the UK is the first country to become an LLC

Then TheHairyNug drove it home:

You joke, but the East India Company was p real

If you aren’t up to snuff on the East India Company, I’ll let A&E’s History explain:

One of the biggest, most dominant corporations in history operated long before the emergence of tech giants like Apple or Google or Amazon. The English East India Company was incorporated by royal charter on December 31, 1600 and went on to act as a part-trade organization, part-nation-state and reap vast profits from overseas trade with India, China, Persia and Indonesia for more than two centuries. Its business flooded England with affordable tea, cotton textiles and spices, and richly rewarded its London investors with returns as high as 30 percent.

[…]

But just when the East India Company’s grip on trade weakened in the late 18th century, it found a new calling as an empire-builder. At one point, this mega corporation commanded a private army of 260,000 soldiers, twice the size of the standing British army. That kind of manpower was more than enough to scare off the remaining competition, conquer territory and coerce Indian rulers into one-sided contracts that granted the Company lucrative taxation powers.

The East India Company was involved in the slave trade as well as sending opium to China. Heavy stuff for a COTD and I’ll let you do your own research there.

Have a great evening, everyone!

(Topshot: Royal Museums Greenwich artwork ID: 12649)