The East India Company (also the English East India Company^[1] and then the British East India Company)^[2] was an early English The area now called England has been settled by people of various cultures for about 35,000 years, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant joint-stock company A joint stock company is a type of business entity: it is a type of corporation or partnership involving two or more legal persons. Certificates of ownership (or stocks) are issued by the company in return for each financial contribution, and the shareholders are free to transfer their ownership interest at any time by selling their stockholding^[3] that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies The Indies is a term that has been used to describe the lands of South and Southeast Asia, occupying all of the present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and Indonesia. In a more restricted sense, the Indies can, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent and other terms, is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate south of the Himalayas, forming a land mass which extends southward into the Indian Ocean and China China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity. The oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies, the Company was granted an English Royal Charter In medieval Europe, royal charters were used to create cities . The date that such a charter was granted is considered to be when a city was "founded", regardless of when the locality originally began to be settled, under the name Governor and Company of Merchants under the chairmanship of Lord Mayor of London To form an association to trade directly with India, by Elizabeth I Elizabeth I was Queen regnant of England and Queen regnant of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Oriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed two and a on 31 December 1600.^[4] After a rival English company challenged its monopoly in the late 17th century, the two companies were merged in 1708 to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, commonly styled the Honourable East India Company,^[5] and abbreviated, HEIC;^[6] the Company was colloquially referred to as John Company,^[7] and in India as Company Bahadur (Hindustani Hindustani , Hindostani or Hindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language that spans several closely related dialects in northern India and Pakistan. Hindustani is sometimes considered the lingua franca of India and Pakistan bahādur, "brave").^[8]

The East India Company traded mainly in cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant . The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas,Africa , India and Pakistan. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, which is the most, silk Silk is a natural protein fibre, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity . The shimmering appearance of silk is due to the triangular prism-like structure of the silk fibre, which allows silk cloth to refract, indigo dye Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color . Historically, indigo was extracted from plants, and this process was important economically because blue dyes were once rare. Nearly all indigo produced today — several thousand tons each year — is synthetic. It is the blue of blue jeans, saltpetre Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula K , tea Tea is the agricultural product of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods. "Tea" also refers to the aromatic beverage prepared from the cured leaves by combination with hot or boiling water, and is the common name for the Camellia sinensis plant itself, and opium Opium is the dried latex obtained from opium poppies (Papaver somniferum). Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an opiate alkaloid, which is most frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids, such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine. The latex is obtained. However, it also came to rule large swathes of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions, to the exclusion, gradually, of its commercial pursuits. Company rule in India Company rule in India refers to the rule or dominion of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when the Nawab of Bengal surrendered his dominions to the Company, in 1765, when the Company was granted the diwani, or the right to collect revenue, in, which effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey The Battle of Plassey , 23 June 1757, was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in India which expanded over much of South Asia for the next 190 years. The battle took place at Palashi, West Bengal, on the riverbanks of the Bhagirathi River, about 150 km north of, lasted until 1858, when, following the events of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northern Madhya Pradesh,, and under the Government of India Act 1858 The Government of India Act 1858, actually entitled An Act for the Better Government of India, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on August 2, 1858. Its provisions called for the liquidation of the British East India Company (who had up to this point been ruling British India under the auspices of Parliament) and the, the British Crown The monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties. As a constitutional monarch, the Queen is limited to non- assumed direct administration of India in the new British Raj The British Raj is the name given to the period of British colonial rule in South Asia between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the dominion itself, and even the region under the rule. The region, commonly called India in contemporary usage, included areas directly administered by Britain, as well as the princely states ruled by individual. The Company itself was finally dissolved on 1 January 1874, as a result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act.

The Company long held a privileged position in relation to the English, and later the British, government. As a result, it was frequently granted special rights and privileges, including trade monopolies In economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos / μονος + polein / πωλειν (to sell)) exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it. (This is in contrast to a monopsony which relates to a and exemptions. These caused resentment among its competitors, who saw unfair advantage in the Company's position. Despite this resentment, the Company remained a powerful force for over 200 years over India.

In 2005, Sanjiv Mehta, an Indian businessman bought East India Company from the "30 to 40 people" who owned the shares of East India Company^[9]. Starting with Mayfair in Central London, Mr. Mehta plans to launch several stores around the world for selling luxury goods under the East India Company brand^[10].

History

The foundation years

Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada The Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English involvement in the Spanish Netherlands and English-sponsored piracy in the Atlantic. The fleet's mission was to sail to the Gravelines in Flanders in 1588, a group of merchants of London presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I was Queen regnant of England and Queen regnant of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Oriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed two and a for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean.^[11] The permission was granted and in 1591 three ships sailed from England, around the Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope (Afrikaans: Kaap die Goeie Hoop, Dutch: Kaap de Goede Hoop , Portuguese: Cabo da Boa Esperança) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of South Africa, to the Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui, the north-east point of Somalia, Socotra, and Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin) in India; one of them, the Edward Bonaventure then sailed around Cape Comorin and on to the Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its teminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland. The area contains territories of Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, and subsequently returned to England in 1594.^[11] In 1596, three more ships sailed out east, however, these were all lost at sea.^[11] Two years later, on 24 September 1598, another group of merchants of London, having raised £30,133 in capital, met to form a corporation. Although their first attempt was unsuccessful, they nonetheless set about seeking the Queen's unofficial approval, purchased ships for their venture, increased their capital to £68,373, and convened again a year later.^[11] This time they succeeded, and on 31 December 1600, the Queen granted a Royal Charter In medieval Europe, royal charters were used to create cities . The date that such a charter was granted is considered to be when a city was "founded", regardless of when the locality originally began to be settled to "George, Earl of Cumberland, and 715 Knights A knight was a member of the warrior class of the Middle Ages in Europe who followed a code of law called "chivalry". In other Indo-European languages, cognates of cavalier or rider are more prevalent suggesting a connection to the knight's mode of transport. Since antiquity a position of honour and prestige has been held by mounted, Aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, or denote a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, and Burgesses Burgess is a word in English that originally meant a freeman of a borough or burgh (Scotland). It later came to mean an elected or un-elected official of a municipality, or the representative of a borough in the English House of Commons" under the name, Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies.^[12] The charter awarded the newly formed company, for a period of fifteen years, a monopoly of trade (known today as a patent) with all countries to the east of the Cape of Good Hope and to the west of the Straits of Magellan The Strait of Magellan comprises a navigable sea route immediately south of mainland South America and north of Tierra del Fuego. The waterway is the most important natural passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, but it is considered a difficult route to navigate because of the unpredictable winds and currents and the narrowness of.^[12] Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601.^[13]

Initially, the Company struggled in the spice trade The spice trade is a commercial activity of ancient origin which involves the merchandising of spices, incense, herbs, drugs and opium. Civilizations of Asia were involved in spice trade from the ancient times, and the Greco-Roman world soon followed by trading along the Incense route and the Roman-India routes. The Roman-Indian routes were due to the competition from the already well established Dutch The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock. It was also arguably the world's first megacorporation, possessing. However the Company did open a factory (trading post) in Bantam on the first voyage and imports of pepper Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately 5 millimetres (0.20 in) in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed. Peppercorns, and the powdered from Java Java is an island of Indonesia and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. Once the center of powerful Hindu-Buddhist empires, Islamic sultanates, and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies, Java now plays a dominant role in the economic and political life of Indonesia. Home to a population of 136 million as of 2010 census count, it is the most were an important part of the Company's trade for twenty years. The factory in Bantam was finally closed in 1883. During this time ships belonging to the company arrived in India, docking at Surat Surat is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat and also the second-largest commercial hub of western India after Mumbai. The city proper is the one of the most populous cities in the world. Surat is the administrative capital of Surat district and Surat Metropolitan Region. Surat is India's eighth largest metropolitan city, which was established as a trade transit point in 1608. In the next two years, it managed to build its first factory in the town of Machilipatnam Machilipatnam pronunciation (help·info) is a city and a special grade municipality in the Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, India. The town has existed since the 3rd century BCE (Satavahana period) when, according to Ptolemy, it was known as Maisolos. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea calls it Masalia in the 1st century CE. The port is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal IPA:ˈbɒŋɡopoʃɑːˈgoɽ), the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered by Bangladesh (land of Bengal, where the name of the Bay originates from) and the Indian state of West Bengal to the north India and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma (. The high profits reported by the Company after landing in India (presumably owing to a reduction in overhead costs affected by the transit points), initially prompted King James I James VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625 to grant subsidiary licenses to other trading companies in England. But, in 1609, he renewed the charter given to the Company for an indefinite period, including a clause which specified that the charter would cease to be in force if the trade turned unprofitable for three consecutive years.

The Company was led by one Governor and 24 directors who made up the Court of Directors. They were appointed by, and reported to, the Court of Proprietors. The Court of Directors had ten committees reporting to it.

Foothold in India

English traders frequently engaged in hostilities with their Dutch The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock. It was also arguably the world's first megacorporation, possessing and Portuguese Portugal /ˈpɔɹtʃʉɡəl/ (Portuguese: Portugal, Mirandese: Pertual), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa; Mirandese: República Pertuesa), is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and counterparts in the Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian subcontinent; on the west by East Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean . It is the only ocean to be named. The Company achieved a major victory over the Portuguese in the Battle of Swally in 1612. Perhaps realizing the cost of waging trade wars in remote seas, the Company decided to explore the feasibility of gaining a territorial foothold in mainland India, with official sanction of both countries, and requested the Crown to launch a diplomatic mission. In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe was instructed by James I to visit the Mughal Emperor The Mughal Empire , or Mogul (also Moghul) Empire in former English usage, was an Indian-Islamic power that ruled a large portion of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of South Asia by the late 17th and early 18th centuries by forming alliance with Indian Maharaja, and ended in the mid-19th century Nuruddin Salim Jahangir Nur-ud-din Salim Jahangir (full title: Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram, Khushru-i-Giti Panah, Abu'l-Fath Nur-ud-din Muhammad Jahangir Padshah Ghazi [Jannat-Makaani]) (20 September 1569 – 8 November 1627) (OS 31 August 1569 – NS 8 November 1627) was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1605 until his death. The name Jahangir is from (r. 1605 - 1627) to arrange for a commercial treaty which would give the Company exclusive rights to reside and build factories in Surat Surat is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat and also the second-largest commercial hub of western India after Mumbai. The city proper is the one of the most populous cities in the world. Surat is the administrative capital of Surat district and Surat Metropolitan Region. Surat is India's eighth largest metropolitan city and other areas. In return, the Company offered to provide the Emperor with goods and rarities from the European market. This mission was highly successful as Jahangir sent a letter to James through Sir Thomas Roe:^[14]

Upon which assurance of your royal love I have given my general command to all the kingdoms and ports of my dominions to receive all the merchants of the English nation as the subjects of my friend; that in what place soever they choose to live, they may have free liberty without any restraint; and at what port soever they shall arrive, that neither Portugal nor any other shall dare to molest their quiet; and in what city soever they shall have residence, I have commanded all my governors and captains to give them freedom answerable to their own desires; to sell, buy, and to transport into their country at their pleasure.

For confirmation of our love and friendship, I desire your Majesty to command your merchants to bring in their ships of all sorts of rarities and rich goods fit for my palace; and that you be pleased to send me your royal letters by every opportunity, that I may rejoice in your health and prosperous affairs; that our friendship may be interchanged and eternal.

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