The Plunder Economy

" Instead of the salary paid to non-Mongol administrators, the higher-ranking Mongol officials received shares in goods, a large part of which they sold or traded on the market to get money or other commodities."

Royal Navy and prize money is a later, similar, set up-

The Mongols however were nomadic warriors. They could prosper because there were others richer than themselves to prey upon.

The Romans were farmers whose army was initially for defense. Romans were richer than most of those around them and usually pursued conquest to reduce threats to them and to colonize areas for development. Trade with its colonies was commonplace and the social structure extended far beyond Rome. While we often only consider Rome as an empire, it started as a monarchy and was a republic for centuries before becoming an empire.

Just because they saw their trade routes as the commercial equivalent of tax farming doesn't mean that we have to.

Plunder and tax farming are certainly easier to conceptualize than increased wealth through trade and specialization, even today. (See the frequent justifications of capitalism as a system for producing wealth of the government to tax.)

Is it possible that this is why the Vikings turned from traders to raiders?

Quote: "The East India Company was given a license to plunder as long as it acted in the crown's interests. Eventually this evolved away from plunder...toward modern trade."
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There's a small library of research on the East India Company by now. But it is all historical. See however, K R Chaudhuri, 'The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company 1660-1760' (CUP 1978; pb 2006.) Chaudhuri used early computers (punchcard type) in his research, so it's at least quasi-scientific. He found that the Company's trading patterns were so intricate that only his early quasi-scientific research could really elucidate them.

The East India Company was in fact the world's first multinational. It established coastal trading posts in India from the outset: Bombay, Madras, Calcutta all started life as East India Company 'factories' or warehouse-cum-production centres. The Company organised textile production here, for sale in England, on the Continent, _and_ in the intra-Asian trade. Some 85 different types of textiles were produced. The Company also exported raw silk & pepper to England.

The Company traded too with China, importing tea, chinaware, porcelain, raw silk into England. It imported coffee from southern Arabia & pepper from SEAsia.

All the goods concerned were paid for in a very wide range of silver currencies, including Spanish 'reals' obtained in Amsterdam.