Baba Aye's

1. Introduction The first multinational corporations were the East Indian Company established by the British in 1600 and the Dutch East Indian Company established in 1602 (Cf: Bowen et al, 2002; Glenn, 2007). These started as private corporations chartered by the states of their respective countries. These early multinational corporations were not only fully supported by their states and administered other lands under their countries’ flags, when the Dutch company ran into bankruptcy and would be liquidated, its debts were socialized, i.e. borne by the Dutch state, while its profits had always been private (Cf: Ricklefs, 1991). Since their not so humble beginnings four hundred years ago, multinational corporations have been a key feature of capitalist development as it spreads its fangs across the world. The globalization discourse in the past few decades has however given added fillip to the need for a deepened understanding of what multinational corporations are, what they do and