WHAT WAS THE EAST INDIA COMPANY East India

WHAT WAS THE EAST INDIA COMPANY? East India Company was the name of several historical European companies chartered with Asia, more specially with India. • British East India Company, founden in 1600 • Danish East India Company, founded in 1616 • Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602 • French East India Company, founded in 1664 • Swedish East India Company, founded in 1731 • Portuguese East India Company, founded in 1628

European settlements in India (1498 -1739)

The British East India Company • First it was called Honorable East India Company (HEIC) or often ”John Company”. Based in London. • An early joint-stock company, which was granted an English Royal Charter by Elisabeth I. on December 31, 1600. • Queen Elisabeth granted the monopoly rights to bring goods from India. • The Royal Charter gave the newly created HEIC a 21 monoply on all trade in the East Indies. • The Company had 125 shareholders, and a capital of £ 72, 000

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

THE HISTORY DIFFICULTIES AT THE BEGINNING • First voyage in 1601 by Captai James Lancaster, with ships: the Dragon, the Susan, the Hector and the Ascension. In Aceh and Sumatra. - Unsuccesful for the next twenty years, because of Dutch dominanace. • Traders were frequently engaged in hostilities with their Dutch and Portuguese counterparts in the Indian Ocean • A key event providing the Company with the favour of Mughal emperor Jahangir was their victory over the Portuguese in the Battle of Swally in 1612.

w In 1610 -1611 first factories and trading posts estableshed in India to protect the areas in Madres and Bombay. w In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe was instructed by James I to visit the Mughal emperor Jahangir to arrange for a commercial treaty which would give the Company exclusive rights to reside and build factories in Surat and other areas w In return, the Company offered to provide to the emperor goods and rarities from the European market w First trip to China in 1637 by John Wedellen. Unsuccesful- The port was only opened in 1685. Main imports were: tea, silk, porcelain. Sir Thomas Roe

THE BIG BOOM • It managed to create strongholds in Surat, Madras (1639), Bombay (1668) and Calcutta (1690) • 1650 -1655 rival companies had been incorporated under the Commonwealth. • In 1657 EIC got the rights to trade in India and was reorganised as the sole joint-stock company. • ”The United Company of Merchants England Trading to the East Indies”-East India Company. Total trade monopoly on all commerce to China and India. • In 1711, the Company established a trading post in Canton (Guangzhou), China, to trade tea for silver

THE COMPLETE MONOPOLY w The prosperity enjoyed by employees allowed them to return to England establish estates, businesses, and to obtain political power w Consequently, the Company developed for itself a lobby in the English parliament w However, under pressure from ambitious tradesmen and former associates of the Company, who wanted to establish private trading firms in India, a deregulating act was passed in 1694 w This allowed any English firm to trade with India, unless specifically prohibited by act of parliament, thereby annulling the charter that was in force for almost 100 years w By an act that was passed in 1698, a new "parallel" East India Company was floated under a state-backed indemnity of £ 2 million w However, the powerful stockholders of the old company quickly subscribed a sum of £ 315, 000 in the new concern, and dominated the new body w The two companies wrestled with each other for some time, both in England in India, for a dominant share of the trade w It quickly became evident that, in practice, the original Company faced scarcely any measurable competition w Both companies finally merged in 1702, by a tripartite indenture involving them both as well as the state

THE TRANSFORMATION FROM A TRADING COMPANY TO A RULING ENTERPRISE • 1757 - Control of Bengal - Sir Robert Clive - Battle of Plassey w Slowly, the company got the rights to collect revenues (állami jövedelmek) and taxes from people in place of the Mughal ruler. w During the famine of 1769 -70, the East India Company did absolutely nothing to help the people and the state of Bengal was reduced from a rich state to an impoverished state. w Almost one third of the people died as a result of the famine. • • • Arthur Wellesley – defeated Tipu sultan in 1799 1773 -The Regulating Act: greater parlamental control 1784 -The Pitt’s India Act: political, military and finantial control for the government over the Indian affairs of the Co. • 1784 East India Bill – Board of Controll (ellenőrző bizottság)

Robert Clive (1725 -74)

Warren Hastings Arthur Wellesley (1732 -1818) (1796 -1852) First governor Duke of Wellington

OPIUM WARS • In the late XVIII. century, opium had been used in much of Asia for several countries. • It was used as medicine and smoked with tobacco. • England could grow opinum in India and the transport it home. • In the eighteenth century, England had a huge trade deficit with Qing Dynasty China and so in 1773, the Company created a British monopoly of opium trading in Bengal • As opium trade was illegal in China, Company ships could not carry opium to China • The opium produced in Bengal was sold in Calcutta on condition that it be sent to China

w Despite the Chinese ban on opium imports, reaffirmed in 1799, it was smuggled into China from Bengal by traffickers and agency houses averaging 900 tons a year w The proceeds from drug-runners at Lintin were paid into the Company’s factory at Canton and by 1825, most of the money needed to buy tea in China was raised by the illegal opium trade w Eventually this led to the The first Opium War (1839 -42). Not only were the Chinese defeated but the British seizing Hong Kong and opening of the Chinese market to British drug traffickers. w 1856: The second Opium War – France and the EIC won against China

FINANCIAL TROUBLES w Though the Company was becoming increasingly bold and ambitious in putting down resisting states, it was getting clearer day by day that the Company was incapable of governing the vast expanse of the captured territories w Military and administrative costs mounted beyond control in British administered regions in Bengal due to the ensuing drop in labour productivity w At the same time, there was commercial stagnation and trade depression throughout Europe following the lull in the post. Industrial Revolution period

w The desperate directors of the company attempted to avert bankruptcy by appealing to Parliament for financial help w This led to the passing of the Tea Act in 1773, which gave the Company greater autonomy in running its trade in America w Its monopolistic activities triggered the Boston Tea Party in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, one of the major events leading up to the American War for Independence

THE END • Deprived of its trade monopoly in 1813, the company wound up as a trading enterprise • The company continued its administrative function till the Sepoy Rebellion (1857 -1859) • The 1857 insurrection was known to the British as the "Great Mutiny" but to Indians as the "First War of Independence„ • The Company was soon nationalised by the Government in London to which it lost all its administrative functions and all of its Indian possessions - including its armed forces - were taken over by the Crown.

w For some time the Company was still managing the tea trade on behalf of the British government • The East India Company was dissolved on January 1. 1874 by the East India Stock Divided Redemption Act w The map shows British India in the early 20 th century. Pink areas were ruled directly by Britain. Light green areas were ruled by the Indian princes.

The East India Company flag changed over time Downman (1685) Lens (1700) Rees (1820) Laurie (1842) National Geographic (1917)