East India Company

was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (which included the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia), and later with East Asia. The company gained control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent 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 certain times.

Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies," the company rose to account for half of the world's trade during the mid-1700s and early 1800s,

The company eventually came to rule large areas of the Indian subcontinent, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Under this government-like rule, the company used torture to extract taxes, reduced much of the population to poverty and enacted policies that resulted in the Great Bengal Famine of 1770, during which 10 million people starved to death.

Company-ruled areas in the region gradually expanded after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and by 1858 most of modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, along with Lower Burma, was either ruled by the company or princely states closely tied to the company by treaties. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of present-day Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Myanmar in the form of the new British Raj.

With England at war with Spain and Portugal in 1585 trade was now cut off, and Queen Elizabeth I resorted to privateering. Soon after Thomas Cavendish's circumnavigation in 1587 and the Spanish Armada's defeat the following year, the captured Spanish and Portuguese ships and cargoes laid the foundation for further privateering to even more distant zones of the conflict. London merchants presented a petition to Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean, and beyond with the Spice Islands of particular interest. The aim was to deliver a decisive blow to the Spanish and Portuguese monopoly of far-eastern trade. Elizabeth granted her permission and in 1591, James Lancaster in the with two other ships, financed by the Levant Company, sailed from England around the Cape of Good Hope to the Arabian Sea, becoming the first English expedition to reach India that way. Having sailed around Cape Comorin to the Malay Peninsula, they preyed on Spanish and Portuguese ships there before returning to England in 1594. When she was brought in to Dartmouth she was the largest vessel ever seen in England and she carried chests of jewels, pearls, gold, silver coins, ambergris, cloth, tapestries, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, benjamin (a highly aromatic balsamic resin used for perfumes and medicines), red dye, cochineal and ebony. Equally valuable was the ship's rutter (mariner's handbook) containing vital information on the China, India, and Japan trade routes. Fitch was consulted on Indian affairs and gave even more valuable information to Lancaster.

Formation

In 1599, a group of prominent merchants and explorers met to discuss a potential East Indies venture under a royal charter. Two days later, the "Adventurers" reconvened and resolved to apply to the Queen for support of the project. 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. She granted her charter to their corporation named Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies. on English trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. 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".

The charter named Thomas Smythe as the first governor

Early voyages to the East Indies

Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601 aboard . 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" (trading posts) – one at Bantam on Java and another in the Moluccas (Spice Islands) before leaving. On return to England in 1603, they learned of Elizabeth's death, but Lancaster was knighted by the new king, James I, on account of the voyage's success. 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.

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.

! Year !! Vessels !! Total Invested £ !! Bullion sent £!! Goods sent £!! Ships & Provisions £ !! Notes

| 1603 || 3 || 60,450 || 11,160 || 1,142 || 48,140 ||

| 1606 || 3 || 58,500 || 17,600 || 7,280 || 28,620 ||

| 1607 || 2 || 38,000 || 15,000 || 3,400 || 14,600 || Vessels lost

| 1608 || 1 || 13,700 || 6,000 || 1,700 || 6,000 ||

| 1609 || 3 || 82,000 || 28,500 || 21,300 || 32,000 ||

| 1610 || 4 || 71,581 || 19,200 || 10,081 || 42,500 ||

| 1611 || 4 || 76,355 || 17,675 || 10,000 || 48,700 ||

| 1612 || 1 || 7,200 || 1,250 || 650 || 5,300 ||

| 1613 || 8 || rowspan="4" | 272,544 || 18,810 || 12,446 || ||

| 1614 || 8 || 13,942 || 23,000 || ||

| 1615 || 6 || 26,660 || 26,065 || ||

| 1616 || 7 || 52,087 || 16,506 || ||

Initially, the company struggled in the spice trade because of competition from the Dutch East India Company. This rivalry led to military skirmishes, with each company establishing fortified trading posts, fleets, and alliances with local rulers. The Dutch, better financed and supported by their government, gained the upper hand by establishing a stronghold in the spice islands (now Indonesia), enforcing a near-monopoly through aggressive policies that eventually drove the EIC to seek trade opportunities in India instead. The English company opened a factory (trading post) in Bantam on Java on its first voyage, and imports of pepper from Java remained an important part of the company's trade for twenty years.

thumb| fought the Portuguese at the [[Battle of Swally in 1612, and made several voyages to the East Indies]]

thumb|275px|The emperor [[Jahangir investing a courtier with a robe of honour, watched by Sir Thomas Roe, English ambassador to the court of Jahangir at Agra from 1615 to 1618, and others]]

English traders frequently fought their Dutch and Portuguese counterparts in the Indian Ocean. The company achieved a major victory over the Portuguese in the Battle of Swally in 1612, at Suvali in Surat. The company decided to explore the feasibility of a foothold in mainland India, with official sanction from both Britain and the Mughal Empire, and requested that the Crown launch a diplomatic mission.

Foothold in India

Company ships docked at Surat in Gujarat in 1608. The company's first Indian factory was established in 1611 at Masulipatnam on the Andhra Coast of the Bay of Bengal, and its second in 1615 at Surat. independently attacking the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf Residencies primarily for political reasons. The company established trading posts in Surat (1619) and Madras (1639). By 1647, the company had 23 factories and settlements in India, and 90 employees. Many of the major factories became some of the most populated and commercially influential cities in Bengal, including the walled forts of Fort William in Bengal, Fort St George in Madras, and Bombay Castle.

The first century of the Company, despite its original profits coming primarily from piracy in the Spice Islands between competing European powers and their companies, saw the East India Company change focus after suffering a major setback in 1623 when their factory in Amboyna in the Moluccas was attacked by the Dutch. This compelled the company to formally abandon their efforts in the Spice Islands, and turn their attention to Bengal where, by this time, they were making steady, if less exciting, profits. and in 1717 customs duties were completely waived for the English in Bengal. By then, the Company's mainstay businesses were in cotton, silk, opium, indigo dye, saltpetre and tea. Meanwhile, the Dutch, the Company's most aggressive competitors, had expanded their monopoly of the spice trade in the Straits of Malacca by ousting the Portuguese in 1640–1641. With reduced Portuguese and Spanish influence in the region, the EIC and VOC entered a period of intense competition, resulting in the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17th and 18th centuries. The British were also interested in trans-Himalayan trade routes, as they would create access to untapped markets for British manufactured goods in Tibet and China. This economic interest was showcased by the Anglo-Nepalese war (1814–1816).

Expansion throughout Asia

Within the first two decades of the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company or Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), was the wealthiest commercial operation in the world with 50,000 employees worldwide and a private fleet of 200 ships. It specialised in the spice trade and gave its shareholders 40% annual dividend.

The British East India Company was fiercely competitive with the Dutch and French throughout the 17th and 18th centuries over spices from the Spice Islands. Some spices, at the time, could only be found on these islands, such as nutmeg and cloves; and they could bring profits as high as 400 per cent from one voyage.

The tension was so high between the Dutch and the British East Indies Trading Companies that it escalated into at least four Anglo-Dutch wars:

In an act aimed at strengthening the power of the EIC, King Charles II granted the EIC (in a series of five acts around 1670) the rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops and form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the acquired areas.

In 1689, a Mughal fleet commanded by Sidi Yaqub attacked Bombay. After a year of resistance the EIC surrendered in 1690, and the company sent envoys to Aurangzeb's camp to plead for a pardon. The company's envoys had to prostrate themselves before the emperor, pay a large indemnity, and promise better behaviour in the future. The emperor withdrew his troops, and the company subsequently re-established itself in Bombay and set up a new base in Calcutta.

{| style="text-align:right;"

|+ Indian exports of textiles to Europe (pieces per year)

! rowspan="2" | Years !! colspan="5" | EIC !! VOC !! France !! EdI !! Denmark !! rowspan="2" |Total

! Bengal !!Madras!!Bombay!!Surat!!EIC (total)!!VOC (total)||||||

| 1665–1669||7,041||37,078||95,558||||139,677||126,572||||||||266,249

| 1670–1674||46,510||169,052||294,959||||510,521||257,918||||||||768,439

| 1675–1679||66,764||193,303||309,480||||569,547||127,459||||||||697,006

| 1680–1684||107,669||408,032||452,083||||967,784||283,456||||||||1,251,240

| 1685–1689||169,595||244,065||200,766||||614,426||316,167||||||||930,593

| 1690–1694||59,390||23,011||89,486||||171,887||156,891||||||||328,778

| 1695–1699||130,910||107,909||148,704||||387,523||364,613||||||||752,136

| 1700–1704||197,012||104,939||296,027||||597,978||310,611||||||||908,589

| 1705–1709||70,594||99,038||34,382||||204,014||294,886||||||||498,900

| 1710–1714||260,318||150,042||164,742||||575,102||372,601||||||||947,703

| 1715–1719||251,585||20,049||582,108||||534,188||435,923||||||||970,111

| 1720–1724||341,925||269,653||184,715||||796,293||475,752||||||||1,272,045

| 1725–1729||558,850||142,500||119,962||||821,312||399,477||||||||1,220,789

| 1730–1734||583,707||86,606||57,503||||727,816||241,070||||||||968,886

| 1735–1739||580,458||137,233||66,981||||784,672||315,543||||||||1,100,215

| 1740–1744||619,309||98,252||295,139||||812,700||288,050||||||||1,100,750

| 1745–1749||479,593||144,553||60,042||||684,188||262,261||||||||946,449

| 1750–1754||406,706||169,892||55,576||||632,174||532,865||||||||1,165,039

| 1755–1759||307,776||106,646||55,770||||470,192||321,251||||||||791,443

Slavery 1621–1834

The East India Company's archives suggest its involvement in the slave trade began in 1684, when a Captain Robert Knox was ordered to buy and transport 250 slaves from Madagascar to St. Helena. The East India Company began using and transporting slaves in Asia and the Atlantic in the early 1620s, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, or in 1621, according to Richard Allen. Eventually, the company ended the trade in 1834 after numerous legal threats from the British state and the Royal Navy in the form of the West Africa Squadron, which discovered various ships had contained evidence of the illegal trade.

Japan

thumb|A document with the original [[vermilion seal of Tokugawa Ieyasu, granting trade privileges in Japan to the East India Company in 1613]]

In 1613, during the rule of Tokugawa Hidetada of the Tokugawa shogunate, the British ship , under the command of Captain John Saris, was the first English ship to call on Japan. Saris was the chief factor of the EIC's trading post in Java, and with the assistance of William Adams, an English sailor who had arrived in Japan in 1600, he was able to gain permission from the ruler to establish a commercial house in Hirado on the Japanese island of Kyushu:

Unable to obtain Japanese raw silk for export to China, and with their trading area reduced to Hirado and Nagasaki from 1616 onwards, the company closed its factory in 1623.

Anglo-Mughal war

thumb|[[Kingdom of France|French illustration of Sir Josiah Child requesting a pardon from the Emperor Aurangzeb]]

The first of the Anglo-Indian wars occurred in 1686 when the company conducted naval operations against Shaista Khan, the governor of Mughal Bengal. This led to the siege of Bombay and the subsequent intervention of the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb. Subsequently, the English company was defeated and fined.

Mughal convoy piracy incident of 1695

In September 1695, Captain Henry Every, an English pirate on board the , reached the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, where he teamed up with five other pirate captains to make an attack on the Indian fleet returning from the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The Mughal convoy included the treasure-laden Ganj-i-Sawai, reported to be the greatest in the Mughal fleet and the largest ship operational in the Indian Ocean, and its escort, the Fateh Muhammed. They were spotted passing the straits en route to Surat. The pirates gave chase and caught up with the Fateh Muhammed some days later, and meeting little resistance, took some £40,000 of silver.

Every continued in pursuit and managed to overhaul Ganj-i-Sawai, which resisted strongly before eventually striking. Ganj-i-Sawai carried enormous wealth and, according to contemporary East India Company sources, was carrying a relative of the Grand Mughal, though there is no evidence to suggest that it was his daughter and her retinue. The loot from the Ganj-i-Sawai had a total value between £325,000 and £600,000, including 500,000 gold and silver pieces, and has become known as the richest ship ever taken by pirates.

When the news arrived in England it caused an outcry. To appease Aurangzeb, the East India Company promised to pay all financial reparations, while Parliament declared the pirates hostis humani generis ("the enemy of humanity"). In mid-1696 the government issued a £500 bounty on Every's head and offered a free pardon to any informer who disclosed his whereabouts. The first worldwide manhunt in recorded history was underway.

File:Mocha Dapper 1680.jpg|English, Dutch and Danish factories at Mocha

File:Henry Every.gif|An 18th-century depiction of Henry Every, with the Fancy shown engaging its prey in the background

File:Every engaging the Great Mogul's Ship.jpg|British pirates that fought during the Child's War engaging the Ganj-i-Sawai

File:Captain Every (Works of Daniel Defoe).png|Depiction of Captain Every's encounter with the Mughal Emperor's granddaughter after his September 1695 capture of the Mughal trader Ganj-i-Sawai

</gallery>

China

The British began trading with China in 1699. This fact is recorded from the Chinese side in The Draft History of the Qing under the year Kangxi 37 (1698). The apparent discrepancy between the British and Chinese sources can be explained by the fact that Chinese New Year of 1699 did not fall until 31 January, so that any treaties entered into in January would have been logged under Kangxi 37 rather than Kangxi 38. In 1715 the Company established a permanent "factory" in Guangzhou (Canton).

The company started selling opium to Chinese merchants in the 1770s in exchange for goods like porcelain and tea, causing a series of opioid addiction outbreaks across China in 1820. The ruling Qing dynasty outlawed the opium trade in 1796 and 1800, but British merchants continued illegally nonetheless. The Qing took measures to prevent the East India Company from selling opium, and destroyed tens of thousands of chests of opium already in the country. This series of events led to the First Opium War in 1839, which involved a succession of British naval attacks along the Chinese coast over the course of several months. As part of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, the Qing were forced to give British merchants special treatment and the right to sell opium. The Chinese also ceded territory to the British, including the island of Hong Kong.

Forming a complete monopoly

Trade monopoly

The prosperity that the officers of the company enjoyed allowed them to return to Britain and establish sprawling estates and businesses, and to obtain political power, such as seats in the House of Commons. Ship captains sold their appointments to successors for up to £500. As recruits aimed to return to Britain wealthy by securing Indian money, their loyalties to their homeland increased.

This act allowed any English firm to trade with India, unless specifically prohibited by act of parliament, thereby annulling the charter that had been in force for almost 100 years. When the East India Company Act 1697 (9 Will. 3. c. 44) was passed in 1697, a new "parallel" East India Company (officially titled the English Company Trading to the East Indies) was floated under a state-backed indemnity of £2 million. The powerful stockholders of the old company quickly subscribed a sum of £315,000 in the new concern, and dominated the new body. The two companies wrestled with each other for some time, both in England and in India, for a dominant share of the trade. Under this arrangement, the merged company lent a sum of £3,200,000 to the Treasury, in return for exclusive privileges for the next three years, after which the situation was to be reviewed. The amalgamated company became the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies.

At this time, Britain and France became bitter rivals. Frequent skirmishes between them took place for control of colonial possessions. In 1742, fearing the monetary consequences of a war, the British government agreed to extend the deadline for the licensed exclusive trade by the company in India until 1783, in return for a further loan of £1 million. Between 1756 and 1763, the Seven Years' War diverted the state's attention towards consolidation and defence of its territorial possessions in Europe and its colonies in North America.

The war partly took place in the Indian theatre, between the company troops and the French forces. In 1757, the Law Officers of the Crown delivered the Pratt–Yorke opinion distinguishing overseas territories acquired by right of conquest from those acquired by private treaty. The opinion asserted that, while the Crown of Great Britain enjoyed sovereignty over both, only the property of the former was vested in the Crown.

File:Rear view of the East India Company's Factory at Cossimbazar.jpg|Rear view of the East India Company's factory at Cossimbazar

File:Portrait of East India Company official.jpg|Company painting depicting an official of the East India Company, c. 1760

</gallery>

Saltpetre trade

thumb|upright|[[Potassium nitrate|Saltpetre used for gunpowder was one of the major trade goods of the company]]

Sir John Banks, a businessman from Kent who negotiated an agreement between the king and the company, began his career in a syndicate arranging contracts for victualling the navy, an interest he kept up for most of his life. He knew that Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn had amassed a substantial fortune from the Levant and Indian trades.

He became a director and later, as governor of the East India Company in 1672, he arranged a contract which included a loan of £20,000 and £30,000 worth of saltpetre—also known as potassium nitrate, a primary ingredient in gunpowder—for the King "at the price it shall sell by the candle"—that is by auction—where bidding could continue as long as an inch-long candle remained alight.

Outstanding debts were also agreed and the company permitted to export 250 tons of saltpetre. Again in 1673, Banks successfully negotiated another contract for 700 tons of saltpetre at £37,000 between the king and the company. So high was the demand from armed forces that the authorities sometimes turned a blind eye on the untaxed sales. One governor of the company was even reported as saying in 1864 that he would rather have the saltpetre made than the tax on salt.

Basis for the monopoly

Colonial monopoly

thumb|upright=1.2|[[The East Offering its Riches to Britannia - Roma Spiridone, 1778 - BL Foster 245]]

thumb|upright=1.2|An engraving of [[East India House, in Leadenhall Street in the City of London (1766)]]

The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) resulted in the defeat of the French forces, limited French imperial ambitions, and stunted the influence of the Industrial Revolution in French territories. Robert Clive, the Governor-General, led the company to a victory against Joseph François Dupleix, the commander of the French forces in India, and recaptured Fort St George from the French. The company took this respite to seize Manila in 1762.

By the Treaty of Paris, France regained the five establishments captured by the British during the war (Pondichéry, Mahe, Karaikal, Yanam and Chandernagar) but was prevented from erecting fortifications and keeping troops in Bengal (art. XI). Elsewhere in India, the French were to remain a military threat, particularly during the War of American Independence, and up to the capture of Pondichéry in 1793 at the outset of the French Revolutionary Wars without any military presence. Although these small outposts remained French possessions for the next two hundred years, French ambitions on Indian territories were effectively laid to rest, thus eliminating a major source of economic competition for the company.

In May 1772 the EIC stock price rose significantly. In June Alexander Fordyce lost £300,000 shorting EIC stock, leaving his partners liable for an estimated £243,000 in debts. As this information became public, 20–30 banks across Europe collapsed during the British credit crisis of 1772–1773. In India alone, the company had bill debts of £1.2 million. It seems that EIC directors James Cockburn and George Colebrooke were "bulling" the Amsterdam market during 1772. The root of this crisis in relation to the East India Company came from the prediction by Isaac de Pinto that "peace conditions plus an abundance of money would push East Indian shares to exorbitant heights".

On 14 January 1773 the directors of the EIC asked for a government loan and unlimited access to the tea market in the American colonies, both of which were granted. In August 1773 the Bank of England assisted the EIC with a loan.

The East India Company had also been granted competitive advantages over colonial American tea importers to sell tea from its colonies in Asia in American colonies. This led to the Boston Tea Party of 1773 in which protesters boarded British ships and threw the tea overboard. When protesters successfully prevented the unloading of tea in three other colonies and in Boston, Governor Thomas Hutchinson of the Province of Massachusetts Bay refused to allow the tea to be returned to Britain. This was one of the incidents which led to the American Revolution and independence of the American colonies.

The company's trade monopoly with India was abolished in the Charter Act 1813. The monopoly with China was ended in 1833, ending the trading activities of the company and rendering its activities purely administrative.

Disestablishment

In the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and under the provisions of the Government of India Act 1858, the British Government nationalised the company. The British government took over its Indian possessions, its administrative powers and machinery, and its armed forces.

The company had already divested itself of its commercial trading assets in India in favour of the UK government in 1833, with the latter assuming the debts and obligations of the company, which were to be serviced and paid from tax revenue raised in India. In return, the shareholders voted to accept an annual dividend of 10.5%, guaranteed for forty years, likewise to be funded from India, with a final pay-off to redeem outstanding shares. The debt obligations continued beyond dissolution and were only extinguished by the UK government during the Second World War.

The company remained in existence in vestigial form, continuing to manage the tea trade on behalf of the British Government (and the supply of Saint Helena) until the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act 1873 came into effect, on 1 January 1874. This act provided for the formal dissolution of the company on 1 June 1874, after a final dividend payment and the commutation or redemption of its stock. The Times commented on 8 April 1873: The site is now occupied by the Lloyd's building.

In 1607, the company decided to build its own ships and leased a yard on the River Thames at Deptford. By 1614, the yard having become too small, an alternative site was acquired at Blackwall: the new yard was fully operational by 1617. It was sold in 1656, although for some years East India Company ships continued to be built and repaired there under the new owners.

thumb|[[Addiscombe Military Seminary|Addiscombe Seminary, photographed in , with cadets in the foreground]]

The East India College was founded in 1806 as a training establishment for "writers" (i.e. clerks) in the company's service. It was initially located in Hertford Castle, but moved in 1809 to purpose-built premises at Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire. In 1858 the college closed; but in 1862 the buildings reopened as a public school, now Haileybury and Imperial Service College.

The East India Company Military Seminary was founded in 1809 at Addiscombe, near Croydon, Surrey, to train young officers for service in the company's armies in India. It was based in Addiscombe Place, an early 18th-century mansion. The government took it over in 1858 and renamed it the Royal Indian Military College. In 1861 it was closed, and the site was subsequently redeveloped.

The East India Club in London was formed in 1849 for officers of the company. The Club still exists today as a private gentlemen's club with its club house situated at 16 St James's Square, London.

Symbols

Flags

File:British East India Company Flag from Downman.jpg|Downman (1685)

File:British East India Company Flag from Lens.jpg|Lens (1700)

File:NatGeog1917EastIndiaCompanyFlag.jpg|National Geographic (1917)

File:British East India Company Flag from Rees.jpg|Rees (1820)

File:British East India Company Flag from Laurie.jpg|Laurie (1842)

</gallery>

File:British East India Company flag.svg| 1600–1707

File:Flag of the British East India Company (1707).svg| 1707–1801

File:Flag of the British East India Company (1801).svg| 1801–1874

</gallery></div>

The English East India Company flag changed over time, with a canton based on the flag of the contemporary Kingdom, and a field of 9-to-13 alternating red and white stripes.

From 1600, the canton consisted of a St George's Cross representing the Kingdom of England. With the Acts of Union 1707, the canton was changed to the new Union Flag—consisting of an English St George's Cross combined with a Scottish St Andrew's cross—representing the Kingdom of Great Britain. After the Acts of Union 1800 that joined Ireland with Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the canton of the East India Company flag was altered accordingly to include a Saint Patrick's Saltire.

There has been much debate about the number and order of stripes in the field of the flag. Historical documents and paintings show variations from 9-to-13 stripes, with some images showing the top stripe red and others showing it white.

At the time of the American Revolution the East India Company flag was nearly identical to the Continental Union Flag. Historian Charles Fawcett argued that the East India Company Flag inspired the Stars and Stripes of America.

Coat of arms

The East India Company's original coat of arms was granted in 1600. The blazon of the arms is as follows:

The East India Company's later arms, granted in 1698, were: and forms the central emblem displayed on the Scinde Dawk postage stamps.

Ships

thumb|upright=1.4|right|Ships in [[Bombay Harbour, c. 1731]]

Ships of the East India Company were called East Indiamen or simply "Indiamen". Their names were sometimes prefixed with the initials "HCS", standing for "Honourable Company's Service" or "Honourable Company's Ship", such as and .

thumb|upright=1.4|right| was one of the five East Indiamen the Spanish fleet captured in 1780

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the East India Company arranged for letters of marque for its vessels such as Lord Nelson. This was not so that they could carry cannon to fend off warships, privateers, and pirates on their voyages to India and China (that they could do without permission) but so that, should they have the opportunity to take a prize, they could do so without being guilty of piracy. Similarly, Earl of Mornington, an East India Company packet ship of only six guns, also sailed under a letter of marque.

In addition, the company had its own navy, the Bombay Marine, equipped with warships such as . These vessels often accompanied vessels of the Royal Navy on expeditions, such as the Invasion of Java.

At the Battle of Pulo Aura, which was probably the company's most notable naval victory, Nathaniel Dance, Commodore of a convoy of Indiamen and sailing aboard the , led several Indiamen in a skirmish with a French squadron, driving them off. Some six years earlier, on 28 January 1797, five Indiamen, Woodford, under Captain Charles Lennox, Taunton-Castle, Captain Edward Studd, Canton, Captain Abel Vyvyan, Boddam, Captain George Palmer, and , Captain John Christian Lochner, had encountered Admiral de Sercey and his squadron of frigates. On this occasion the Indiamen succeeded in bluffing their way to safety, and without any shots even being fired. Lastly, on 15 June 1795, General Goddard played a large role in the capture of seven Dutch East Indiamen off St Helena.

East Indiamen were large and strongly built, and when the Royal Navy was desperate for vessels to escort merchant convoys, it bought several of them to convert to warships. Earl of Mornington became HMS Drake. Other examples include:

(1795)
(1804)

Their design as merchant vessels meant that their performance in the warship role was underwhelming and the Navy converted them to transports.

The amount of trade and shipping between Britain and company ports in India was considerable. For instance, in 1844, 534 ships (247,087 tons) arrived in Britain, and 540 vessels (239,368 tons) left UK ports for British India.

Records

Unlike all other British Government records, the records from the East India Company (and its successor the India Office) are not in The National Archives at Kew, London, but are held by the British Library in London as part of the Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections. The catalogue is searchable online in the Access to Archives catalogues. Many of the East India Company records are freely available online under an agreement that the Families in British India Society has with the British Library. Published catalogues exist of East India Company ships' journals and logs, 1600–1834; accompanying catalogues also cover the company's daughter institutions, including the East India Company College, Haileybury, and Addiscombe Military Seminary.

1603–1606: Sir Thomas Smythe (re-elected)
1606–1607: Sir William Romney
1607–1621: Sir Thomas Smythe (re-elected)
1621–1624: Sir William Halliday
1624–1638: Sir Maurice (Morris) Abbot
1638–1641: Sir Christopher Clitherow

Notes

References

External links

Seals and Insignias of East India Company
Salt Monopolies 1 - The Secret Monopoly —The basis of the monopoly
Trading Places; – a learning resource from the British Library
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
"East India Company: Its History and Results"—article by Karl Marx, Marx/Engels Collected Works Volume 12, p. 148 in Marxists Internet Archive
Text of East India Company Act 1773
Text of East India Company Act 1784
"The East India Company – a corporate route to Europe" on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time featuring Huw Bowen, Linda Colley and Maria Misra
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

East India Company

Formation

Early voyages to the East Indies

Foothold in India

Expansion throughout Asia

Slavery 1621–1834

Japan

Anglo-Mughal war

China

Forming a complete monopoly

Trade monopoly

Saltpetre trade

Basis for the monopoly

Colonial monopoly

Disestablishment

Symbols

Flags

Coat of arms

Ships

Records

See also