East India Company facts for kids
.svg)
Company flag (1801)
|
|
Coat of arms (1698)
Motto: Auspicio Regis et Senatus Angliae Latin for "By command of the King and Parliament of England" |
|
| Public State-owned enterprise |
|
| Industry | International trade |
| Fate | Nationalised:
|
| Founded | 31 December 1600 |
| Founders |
|
| Defunct | 1 June 1874 |
| Headquarters | East India House, , |
| Products | Cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, slave trade |
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia), and later with East Asia.
The company seized control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. At its peak, the company was the largest corporation in the world. The EIC 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 the time. The operations of the company had a profound effect on the global balance of trade, almost single-handedly reversing the trend of eastward drain of Western bullion, seen since Roman 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, particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, saltpetre, and tea. The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.
The company eventually came to rule large areas of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey and lasted until 1858. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India in the form of the new British Raj.
Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances. The company was dissolved in 1874 as a result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act.
Images for kids
-
James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601
-
Red Dragon fought the Portuguese at the Battle of Swally in 1612, and made several voyages to the East Indies
-
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
-
Document with the original vermilion seal of Tokugawa Ieyasu, granting trade privileges in Japan to the East India Company in 1613
-
French illustration of Sir Josiah Child requesting a pardon from the Emperor Aurangzeb
-
Rear view of the East India Company's Factory at Cossimbazar
-
Company painting depicting an official of the East India Company, c. 1760
-
The East offering its riches to Britannia - Roma Spiridone, 1778 - BL Foster 245
-
Engraving of East India House, Leadenhall Street (1766)
-
The expanded East India House, London, painted by Thomas Malton, c. 1800
-
Addiscombe Seminary, photographed in c.1859, with cadets in the foreground
-
Ships in Bombay Harbour, c. 1731
-
Royal George was one of the five East Indiamen the Spanish fleet captured in 1780
-
English, Dutch and Danish factories at Mocha
-
An 18th-century depiction of Henry Every, with the Fancy shown engaging its prey in the background
-
British pirates that fought during the Child's War engaging the Ganj-i-Sawai
-
Downman (1685)
-
Lens (1700)
-
National Geographic (1917)
-
Rees (1820)
-
Laurie (1842)
-
HEIC Merchant's mark on a Blue Scinde Dawk postage stamp (1852)
See also
In Spanish: Compañía Británica de las Indias Orientales para niños
