East India Company and the Sub Continent’s spices.

In 1583 queen Elizabeth dispatched the ship Tyger to the sub continent to exploit opportunities for trade. Sixteen years after Tyger sailed to India, queen Elizabeth granted trading rights to a group of London entrepreneurs. In 1614 the British East India Company opened its first office in Bombay. The British continued to seek concessions from the Mughal rulers and enjoyed a unique trading monopoly. By the middle of 18th century, the British in guise of East India Company had become deeply enmeshed in the Indian politics. The British and the French both obtained permission to open factories and forts in India. It was in guise of defense for their forts that they were able to establish large forces in India. In the middle of the 18th century, the war between the British and the French extended over the Sub Continent in order to gain control over India. The British succeeded as they took advantage of the constant bickering of the local rulers and lack of consolidated power. In violation of a trade agreement with the Nawab of Bengal, the British started reinforcing fort William in Calcutta. This lead to a clash between the British and the son of Nawab of Bengal, Sirajuddaulah, who opposed the British’s violation and reinforcement of fort William. Owing to the treachery of his uncle, Mir Jaffar, Nawab Sirajuddaulah was defeated at the battle of Plassey by Sir Robert Clive. After the battle of Plassey, the British started systematic conquest of the Sub-continent. It was mainly the Muslims who raised resistance to British rule. The other organized group, the Marathas, periodically sided with the British against the Muslims. The people of India were not united against the British which made it easier for them to gain power. The British eliminated the ones who posed a threat at them. By 1823, the British had control over two thirds of India. Now they were proudly able to claim that “the sun never sets upon the British empire.”

Europe did not grow its own spices and the its people were sick and tired of eating the tasteless food which only had salt in it, so explorers set out in search of spices. India was one of the major producers of spices and the East India Company started trading these spices which produced a lot of profit. The first trade with India was started by Vasco da Gama but later, the East India Company destroyed all other Portuguese and French companies and took control of the trade routes. India has spices like pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs, cardamom, basil, bay leaves, chili, cumin, thyme etc. After failing to trade with Indonesia, The East India Company tried their luck with the Sub-Continent. The Sub-continent had a verity of spices and other untapped resources which the British needed. At first, the East India Company did not get permission from Jahangir, but Kurram, who later became Shah Jehan, granted them permission and the East India Company finally entered the Sub-continent Merchants could gain enormous profits through trade with the Sub-continent. Goods bought in India could be sold up to 80 times that price in Britain.

East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China. The oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies, the Company was granted an English Royal Charter, 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 on 31 December 1600. 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 Honorable East India Company, and abbreviated, HEIC; the Company was colloquially referred to as John Company, and in India as Company Bahadur. The East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpeter, tea, and opium. 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, which effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey, lasted until 1858, when, following the events of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and under the Government of India Act 1858, the British Crown assumed direct administration of India in the new British Raj. 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 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. The Company, benefiting from the imperial patronage, soon expanded its commercial trading operations, eclipsing the Portuguese Estado da India, which had established bases in Goa, Chittagong and Bombay (which was later ceded to England as part of the dowry of Catherine de Braganza). The Company created trading posts in Surat (where a factory was built in 1612), Madras (1639), Bombay (1668) and Calcutta (1690). By 1647, the Company had 23 factories, each under the command of a factor or master merchant and governor if so chosen, and 90 employees in India. The major factories became the walled forts of Fort William in Bengal, Fort St George in Madras and the Bombay Castle.

The company with the long name first entered the spice trade in the form of an old-fashioned or early capitalist venture, essentially conducting each voyage as a separate business venture with its own subscribers or stock-holders. This approach lasted for a dozen years, and then in 1612 the company switched to temporary joint stocks and finally to permanent joint stocks in 1657. Supposedly a monopoly, the company eventually faced competition from another group of English investors and merchants, and the two merged in 1708 as the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies. The company's encounters with foreign competitors eventually required it to assemble its own military and administrative departments, thereby becoming an imperial power in its own right, though the British government began to reign it in by the late eighteenth century. Before Parliament created a government-controlled policy-making body with the Regulating Act of 1773 and the India Act eleven years later, shareholders' meetings made decisions about Britain's de facto colonies in the East. The British government took away the Company's monopoly in 1813, and after 1834 it worked as the government's agency until the 1857 India Mutiny when the Colonial Office took full control. The East India Company went out of existence in 1873.

The British East India company had many achievements, events and actions that influenced people, countries, and history. The company was involved in many different actions and events. The company united India with Roads, railways and telegraph, changing its culture forever. An educational system for India was planned out by one of the shareholders, Thomas Babington Macaulay. This system included English speaking schools and universities. They monopolized and controlled India. The East India Company was more than just a company, it ruled big lands of India benefitted the British empire greatly.

Prepared By: Ramsha Babar, Mohammed Ahmed, Hamas Rehman and Farhan Athar. Grammar School Rawalpindi