The new special relationship

摘要

AROUND four centuries ago, LBritish capital started flowing into India, creating the East India Company, and laying the foundations of the empire. Now capital is flowing in the other direction. In the past ten years the Tata group-which ranges from steel and engineering to chemicals, telecoms and tea-has spent $15 billion buying up famous British firms. Tetley tea was followed by Corus (formerly British Steel) and Jaguar Land Rover (jlr), maker of two of the most quintessential^ British cars, and Brunner Mond, a founder of what was (until it went the way of all empires) Imperial Chemical Industries. As a result of these purchases, Tata is now Britain's biggest industrial employer (see page 54).