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East India Company

The East India Company (EIC)[a] was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874.[4] It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia), and later with East Asia. The company gained control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent and colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. At its peak, the company was the largest corporation in the world by various measures and had its own armed forces in the form of the company's three presidency armies, totalling about 260,000 soldiers, twice the size of the British army at the time.[5]

This article is about the British East India Company. For the Dutch East India Company, see Dutch East India Company. For the chartered East India Companies of other countries, see East India Company (disambiguation).

Company type

31 December 1600 (1600-12-31)

1 June 1874 (1874-06-01)

Nationalised:

Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies",[6][7] the company rose to account for half of the world's trade during the mid-1700s and early 1800s,[8] particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and later, opium. The company also initiated the beginnings of the British Empire in India.[8][9]


The company eventually came to rule large areas of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company-ruled areas in India gradually expanded after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and by 1858 most of modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh was either ruled by the company or princely states closely tied to it by treaty. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India in the form of the new British Raj.[10]


The company subsequently experienced recurring problems with its finances, despite frequent government intervention. The company was dissolved in 1874 under the terms of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act enacted one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless, and obsolete. The official government machinery of the British Raj had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies.

East India Company Act 1697

An Act for raising a Sum not exceeding Two Millions upon a Fund for Payment of Annuities after the Rate of Eight Pounds per Cent. per Annum; and for settling the Trade to the East Indies.

5 July 1698

An Act for continuing the Trade and Corporation-capacity of the United East India Company, although their Fund should be redeemed.

10 Ann. c. 35
Ruffhead c. 28

21 June 1712

History [edit]

Formation[edit]

In 1599, a group of prominent merchants and explorers met to discuss a potential East Indies venture under a royal charter.[17]: 1–2  Besides Fitch and Lancaster,[17]: 5  the group included Stephen Soame, then Lord Mayor of London; Thomas Smythe, a powerful London politician and administrator who had established the Levant Company; Richard Hakluyt, writer and proponent of British colonization of the Americas; and several other sea-farers who had served with Drake and Raleigh.[17]: 1–2 


On 22 September, the group stated their intention "to venture in the pretended voyage to the East Indies (the which it may please the Lord to prosper)" and to themselves invest £30,133 (over £4,000,000 in today's money).[22][23] Two days later, the "Adventurers" reconvened and resolved to apply to the Queen for support of the project.[23] Although their first attempt had not been completely successful, they sought the Queen's unofficial approval to continue. They bought ships for the venture and increased their investment to £68,373.


They convened again a year later, on 31 December 1600, and this time they succeeded; the Queen responded favourably to a petition by "George, Earl of Cumberland and 218 others,[24] including James Lancaster, Sir John Harte, Sir John Spencer (both of whom had been Lord Mayor of London), the adventurer Edward Michelborne, the nobleman William Cavendish and other aldermen and citizens.[25] She granted her charter to their corporation named Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies.[14] For a period of fifteen years, the charter awarded the company a monopoly[26] on English trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan.[27] Any traders there without a licence from the company were liable to forfeiture of their ships and cargo (half of which would go to the Crown and half to the company), as well as imprisonment at the "royal pleasure".[28]


The charter named Thomas Smythe as the first governor[25]: 3  of the company, and 24 directors (including James Lancaster)[25]: 4  or "committees", who made up a Court of Directors. They, in turn, reported to a Court of Proprietors, who appointed them. Ten committees reported to the Court of Directors. By tradition, business was initially transacted at the Nags Head Inn, opposite St Botolph's church in Bishopsgate, before moving to East India House in Leadenhall Street.[29]

Early voyages to the East Indies[edit]

Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601 aboard Red Dragon.[30] The following year, whilst sailing in the Malacca Straits, Lancaster took the rich 1,200 ton Portuguese carrack Sao Thome carrying pepper and spices. The booty enabled the voyagers to set up two "factories" – one at Bantam on Java and another in the Moluccas (Spice Islands) before leaving.[31] They returned to England in 1603 to learn of Elizabeth's death but Lancaster was knighted by the new king, James I on account of the voyage's success.[32] By this time, the war with Spain had ended but the company had profitably breached the Spanish-Portuguese duopoly; new horizons opened for the English.[15]


In March 1604, Sir Henry Middleton commanded the company's second voyage. General William Keeling, a captain during the second voyage, led the third voyage aboard Red Dragon from 1607 to 1610 along with Hector under Captain William Hawkins and Consent under Captain David Middleton.[33]


Early in 1608, Alexander Sharpeigh was made captain of the company's Ascension, and general or commander of the fourth voyage. Thereafter two ships, Ascension and Union (captained by Richard Rowles), sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1608.[33] This expedition was lost.[34]

1600–1601: Sir (first governor)

Thomas Smythe

1601–1602:

Sir John Watts

1602–1603: Sir [107]

John Hart

1603–1606: Sir (re-elected)

Thomas Smythe

1606–1607: Sir

William Romney

1607–1621: Sir (re-elected)

Thomas Smythe

1621–1624: Sir

William Halliday

1624–1638:

Sir Maurice (Morris) Abbot

1638–1641: Sir [108]

Christopher Clitherow

Company rule in India

Economy of India under Company rule

List of East India Company directors

List of trading companies

East India Company Cemetery in Macau

Category:Honourable East India Company regiments

Category:Medals of the Honourable East India Company

Charter of 1600

on In Our Time at the BBC

East India Company

Seals and Insignias of East India Company

The basis of the monopoly.

The Secret Trade

Archived 28 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine – a learning resource from the British Library

Trading Places

Port Cities: History of the East India Company

Ships of the East India Company

Plant Cultures: East India Company in India

History and Politics: East India Company

Nick Robins, , 13 December 2004, New Statesman

"The world's first multinational"

article by Karl Marx, MECW Volume 12, p. 148 in Marxists Internet Archive

East India Company: Its History and Results

Text of East India Company Act 1773

Text of East India Company Act 1784

on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time featuring Huw Bowen, Linda Colley and Maria Misra

"The East India Company – a corporate route to Europe"

Archived 26 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine

HistoryMole Timeline: The British East India Company

William Howard Hooker Collection: East Indiaman Thetis Logbook (#472-003), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University