As assets and responsibilities mounted, the merchants, who had come out as supplicants bearing gifts to local princes for an inside track on trade, gradually became soldiers, and then became local rulers themselves. ... "Two monsoons are the age of a man" ran a gloomy company saying, and many a company man did not survive his first six months of punishing heat and dust. ...

• Word Count: 5127
• Approx Pages: 21
• Grade Level: Undergraduate