East India Company
The unparalleled East India Company trading in tea, saltpeter, indigo dye, opium, silk, and cotton is also known as English East India Company/ East India Trading Company/ British East India Company. It was intended to trade with East Indies in the beginning for the import of spices from South Asian region.
Originating from only a few traders, the Company rose on the international horizons and ultimately paved the ways for the British Empire to keep its sun shining. On December 1600, Elizabeth l granted the English Royal Charter to George, Earl of Cumberland and 215 Aldermen, Knights, and Burgesses named as Governors and Company of Merchants of London Trading into East Indies. It was renamed as United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies (generally known as Honorable East India Company) when it merged with another rival company in 1708. Sir James Lancaster led the very first voyage of the East India Company to India in 1601. The Company rooted itself as trading body and then spread to the administrative, military, and ruling avenues of India.
The Battle of Plassy 1757
The Battle of Plassy in 1757 proved to a turning point in Indian history when Nawab of Bengal and his French allies were defeated by the East India Company. Siraj-ud-Duala ransacked Calcutta and imprisoned British and Anglo-Indian soldiers in Black Hole, a dungeon in Fort William Calcutta. The Fort was the center of British trade in Calcutta and was captured by Siraj-ud-Daula in June 19, 1756. The prisoners were kept in it after the capture of the Fort. John Zephaniah Holwell, one of the survivors of the imprisonment of the Fort reported the death of 123 prisoners of war out of 146 on account of suffocation and heat. The Company appointed Robert Clive and Admiral Charles Watson to avenge the deaths of their countrymen. Clive conspired with Mir Jafar, Yar Lutuf Khan and Jagat Seth who stood with Siraj-ud-Daulah but did not fight for him. Consequently, Clive defeated Siraj-ud-Daula and his French allies in the Battle of Plassy in 1757 killing him. The Battle provided a strong foothold to East India Company in India and the circles of trade were widened to the rule of India.
Government of India Act 1758
In 1858, the British government introduced the transfer of powers from the East India Company to the British crown liquidating the Company. The Act brought the territories captured by the Company under the British Crown. Authority and the duties of the Court of Directors rested in the Principal Secretary of State appointed by the Queen. The appointment of the Governor General and the Governors of the states was to be vested in the Crown and all the captured property was to rest again with the Crown. The Secretary of State for India (assisted by a Council of fifteen members) was authorized to send secret dispatches without bringing them to knowledge of the Council. Indian Civil Service was created under the Secretary of State for India. Thus the Act brought about the functional end of the East India Company as an independent business entity.
History
In 1588, the merchants of London sought permission of the Queen to sail to India which was granted to them in 1591 and they sailed three ships to the Arabian Sea around the Cape of Good Hope. In 1596, three more ships were sailed which were lost on the way. In 1598, a group of merchants (with a capital of £30,133) tried to form a corporation in London and succeeded to win the unofficial approval of the Queen which led the official approval of her majesty on December 31, 1600 when their capital rose to £68,373. The company came in competition with the Dutch East India Company already trading in India. Starting from spices trade, the Company stepped in pepper trade from Java. Until 1683, the ships of the Company docked at Surat when in 1685; they sailed to Coromandel Coast where they established their factory in Machilipatnam, a town in Southern India. The high profits of the Company urged King James to issue licenses to the other companies trading in India. East India Company was granted an unconditional license for indefinite time while other companies were subject to the cancellation of the license in case of bearing a loss for three years.
The company worked with 24 Directors under one Governor. The Directors formed the Court of Directors who was accountable to the court of Proprietors. In 1612, the Company came at daggers drawn with the Portuguese in the Battle of Swally and defeated the Portuguese. In 1612, James l sent Sir Thomas Roe to the court of Jahangir (1605-1627) to seek permission to build factories in Surat which was granted by the Emperor Jahangir. The permission letter of the Emperor Jahangir allowed the Company to bring all sorts of goods and rarities to any place, through any port and in any city of India ordering the Governors of the states and cities to facilitate them with buying, selling, and transporting their goods. The Emperor wrote:
“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 any place; and that you be pleased to send me your royal letters by every opportunity, that I may rejoice in your wealth and prosperous affairs; that our friendship may be interchanged and eternal”.
This “interchanged and eternal love and friendship” proved to be a venomous decision in the long run as it took the heaviest toll from the Muslim rule in India. Their power slipped from their hands and fell into the very lap of the British Crown. Traders became the masters of the Indians.
The company extended its business to the other states and regions of India and established factories in Madras (1639), Bombay (1668), and Calcutta (1690). The factories cum forts provided the British with materializing their conspiracies against the Emperor of India. Fort St. George of Madras, Bombay Castle of Bombay, and Fort William of Bengal are remarkable in history. After 1650, the Dutch monopoly in spices trade in the Malakkan Straits was challenged by the Company. In 1657, Olive Cromwell made some amendments in the 1609 Charter and later in 1870, the company was conferred upon more powers by King Charles ll to form alliances and even indulge in wars to fulfill their designs. In 1682, William Hedges was sent to the Shaista Khan (the Mughal governor of Bengal) to request the permission of trade throughout India. But Sir Josiah Child, the Governor of the Company came at cross purposes with the Crown leading to the negotiations ended. The Child’s War (1686-1690) was won by the Mughal commander Yaqub Sidi who captured Bombay in 1689 and forced the British to beg a pardon from the Mughal Emperor. The Emperor forgave them and allowed them for what they requested and the British re-established themselves in Bombay.
An Act passed in 1698, established a new company parallel to the East India Company named as English Company Trading to the East Indies. But it was soon dominated by the stock holders of the East India Company. The tussle between the two companies finally led to their merge in 1708 with the name of United Company of the Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies. In 1712 the status of the company was amended and it was licensed till 1766 to trade in India. Industrial Revolution (1789) increased the demand of the Indian commodities and the business of the Company flourished and its sales increased from £ 4,988,300 to £ 7,602,041 since February 1793.
Haidar Ali, Tipu Sultan and the Company
The Indian rulers resisted the expansionist designs of the Company and the chain of resistance went on with the passage of time. Siraj-ud-Daula could not win the battle against the British due to the treachery of his own generals in the Battle of Plassy 1757. The Battle of Buxar gave the British an easy chance of victory when the Shah Alam ll withdrew Bihar, Bengal and Midnapur District. It encouraged them to march towards Mysore where they had to confront Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, the rulers of Mysore. After four Anglo-Mysore wars, Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan were martyred and in 1799, Mysore fell into the hands of the British. After three Anglo-Maratha Wars, Bombay went to the British hold making them the rulers of the south of India and the Company reigned supreme during the hundred years of 1757-1857.
Dissolution of the Company
The credit of the British rule over India goes exclusively to the East India Company the trade routes of which leveled the ground for the British domination. The Company issued its own coins with its name on them and enjoyed the sole sovereignty over India until it was dissolved on January 1, 1874 after the approval of East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act 1873 by the British Parliament.
