Nearly 200 years ago, India made a unique contribution to the annals of corporate governance by inventing managing agencies, a system for separating control from ownership very different from the executive-led corporation that would emerge later in the US. These were typically British partnerships that ran, with little capital of their own, everything from jute factories and cotton mills to tea gardens and collieries on behalf of their owners, who were often wealthy Indians.

Under colonial administration, the agency system spread to other parts of Asia. For much of the 19th century, Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., one of the “hongs” that made modern-day Hong Kong, charged firms commissions for 16 different services, from shipping, insurance and debt settlement to managing their estates. Over time, Jardine came to exercise effective control over industrial concerns in China.