Raffles still held a trump card. At the southern tip of Malaya, commanding the sea lanes to China and Japan, was an island with a harbour and a ruined citadel, abandoned centuries ago and populated by ghosts. This was Singhapura, the Lion City. Raffles arrived, took a lease from the island's chieftain and his suzerain, the Sultan of Johore, and set out to plan and build what became another city.

Singapore was established as a free port, "the trade thereof open to ships and vessels of every nation free of duty, equally and alike to all". To his backers in London, Raffles explained: "Our object is not territory but trade, a great commercial emporium, and a fulcrum whence we may extend our influence politically." That now bears the stamp of a prophecy, and his great commercial emporium has become the world's most prosperous city-state.

Back in Leadenhall Street, Raffles submitted a statement of his services and asked for his reward. He got a mixed report-that land sale still counted against him-and a statement from the accountant's department, showing that he owed the company £22,272. It was settled after his death. His last plan had been to establish a zoological garden in Regent's Park, which would bring tigers to London.

 He is, of course, the hero of Victoria Glendinning's account, so the company has to be the villain: "Not too big to fail", she sourly concludes. Most companies have short lives, and for most of its 250-year life-span, this one succeeded-but it could not always be expected to have the courage of its intransigent servant's convictions. As head offices find, tigers resent being herded.