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British East India Company
A trading company chartered by the English crown in 1600 with a monopoly on Eastern trade;…
Timeline
- 1620–1630Surat · SuratWith Mughal permission, the British East India Company established a factory at Surat, trading mainly in cotton, indigo, and pepper, and gradually expanded its warehouses, agents, and local purchasing networks in the 1620s.
- 1631–1640London · LondonUnder Charles I in the 1630s, the company dispatched fleets via London shareholder meetings and a board of directors; it dealt with Dutch and Portuguese rivals while sending gifts to the Mughal court to secure trading privileges, taking on the rudiments of a modern multinational corporation.
- 1639–1644Madras (Chennai) · ChennaiIn 1639 Francis Day acquired land on the Coromandel Coast and built Fort St. George, marking the British East India Company's expansion from India's west coast to the southeast; around 1640 the Madras factory and Surat formed an east–west trading network.
Sources
- Philip J. Stern, The Company-State: Corporate Sovereignty and the Early Modern Foundations of the British Empire in India — Philip J. Stern (2011)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: East India Company https://www.britannica.com/topic/East-India-Company