Charter of the British East India Company

Timeline

1. 1599–1600London · LondonSpurred by the success of the Dutch East India Company, a group of London merchants led by figures such as Thomas Smith pooled funds and petitioned the crown to establish a company with exclusive rights to Eastern trade, to counter Iberian and Dutch dominance in the spice and Asian goods trade.
2. 1600Palace of Greenwich · LondonElizabeth I signed the charter formally establishing the 'Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies,' granting a fifteen-year monopoly on trade east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Strait of Magellan, along with broad powers to wage war, make treaties, and build forts.