Read Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors by Lizzie Collingham. It is an in depth examination of food in India and it's effects on the British. It doesn't sound like it would be much more than a social study, but it's historically enlightening.

Here's a review from Amazon.com:

"Like a fragrant biryani studded with bits of sweet and savory relishes, every page of this history of Indian cuisine offers some revelation about the origins of Indian food and its spread to the West. Historian Collingham traces how successive invasions of the subcontinent contributed new ingredients and novel cooking techniques that transformed indigenous cooking into what we now recognize as classic Indian cuisine. Early invasions from the northwest brought rice, and Persian pilau became Hindustani biryani. Portuguese sailors imported pork and Brazilian chili peppers to create vindaloo. Collingham describes how the regal courts of the various Indian states elaborated on all these foodstuffs to produce what may have been the most sumptuous banquets the world has ever known. Most surprising of all, Collingham's ruminations address the role of tea in India. Although it is a commonplace that today's India is the world's leading producer and consumer of tea, Indians drank very little tea until the British introduced it scarcely a century ago. Recipes, both contemporary and antique, supplement the text. Mark Knoblauch"

http://www.amazon.com/Curry-A-Tale-Cooks-Conquerors/dp/0195320018

Ok, I posted a comment from AlienBlue but it disappeared! This is my 2nd attempt.

There is a series of books titled "The story of Indian business" that describe the history of trade in India at different points of time and in different parts of the sub continent. It is edited by Gurcharan Das and I highly recommend it. One of the books is literally about The East India Company - this book talks about how the East India company took shape in England and how they operated in India. A few things I learnt were: the East India company had a monopoly on trade between England and India and this was guaranteed by the British government; traders in India at that time (1600s) did not have a system of borrowing huge sums of money like the British; Indian traders were marginalized by rest of the society so they were ready to work with the British but the cultural differences were so large there was not a lot of trust. If you are curious about financial nitty gritties this book is great.