East India company Intro...
The
East India Company (
EIC), originally chartered as the
Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into theEast Indies, and more properly called the
Honourable East India Company, was an
English, and later (from 1707)
[1] British joint-stock company,
[2] formed to pursue trade with the
East Indies but that ended up trading mainly with the
Indian subcontinent,
Qing Dynasty China,
North-West Frontier Province and
Balochistan. The company rose to account for half of the world's trade, particularly trade in basic commodities that included
cotton,
silk,
indigo dye,
salt,
saltpetre,
tea and
opium. The company also ruled the beginnings of the
British Empire in India.
[3]
The company received a
Royal Charter from
Queen Elizabeth in 1600,
[4] making it the oldest among several similarly formed European
East India Companies. Wealthy merchants and
aristocrats owned the Company's shares.
[5] The government owned no shares and had only indirect control. The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own
private armies, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions.
[6] Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after the
Battle of Plasseyand lasted until 1858 when, following the
Indian Rebellion of 1857, the
Government of India Act 1858 led to the
British Crown to assume direct control of India in the new
British Raj.
The company was dissolved in 1874 as a result of the
East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act passed one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless, and obsolete. The official government machinery of
British Indiahad assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its
presidency armies.