East India Company

Founded in 1600, dissolved in 1874. Traded in cotton, silk, tea and spices and, over time, came to rule over large parts of the Indian subcontinent and was known for exploitation of trade.

The East India Company started when Queen Elizabeth I granted 218 merchants a monopoly in trading goods to the east of the Cape of Good Hope. Back then, the company established new ways of trading such as offering limited liabilities to shareholders meaning that each shareholder in the company has a financial liability which is limited to a fixed sum. Therefore the person is not liable for debts the company has but only for the amount which has been invested in the business. The Company had been established to share spice trade which had a long time been the monopoly of Spain and Portugal; but after the Spanish Armada has been defeated in 1588, the English were finally able to break the monopoly and over the years the company developed to be included in politics and was an agent of the British imperialism in India (early 18th century until the mid-19th century). Their expansion also reached China in the 19th century and the influence also spread.

In 1608 the first ship finally arrived in Surat and in 1615 Sir Thomas Roe asserted the right for the British to establish a trading post in that city. Over the years, the British expanded trade in India. As a result more and more branches were established along the east and west coast of India with British denizens settling down in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. The company's competitors where the Dutch which were involved in trading in Indonesia, formerly called the Dutch East Indies, and the Portuguese. After the Amboina Massacre in 1623, which was about the Dutch executing their competitors, the company won back concessions which allowed them trading throughout the Mughal Empire. After that there was not only a trade in spices but in cotton, silk, indigo and saltpetre. The trading expansion went on to the Persian Gulf and other parts of Asia. The greatest success was recorded in 1717 when a decree from the Mughal Emperor stated that the Company was exempted from the payment of custom duties in Benegal.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/176643/East-India-Company [11.06.2013] http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/British/EAco.html [11.06.2013]