East India Company

(noun)

An English, and later British, joint-stock company which traded mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing, China.

Related Terms

Examples of East India Company in the following topics:

  • The Calm Before the Storm

    • The Tea Act of 1773 arose from the financial problems of the British East India Company and the dispute of Parliament's authority over the colonies.
    • In England, Parliament gave the East India Company a monopoly on the importation of tea in 1698.
    • The East India Company did not export tea to the colonies; by law, the company was required to sell its tea wholesale at auctions in England.
    • Until 1767, the East India Company paid a tax of about 25% on tea that it imported into Great Britain.
    • Another possible solution for reducing the growing mound of tea in the East India Company warehouses was to sell it cheaply in Europe.

  • The Dutch Empire

    • In 1602, the government of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands chartered the Dutch East India Company with the mission of exploring for a passage to the Indies and claiming any uncharted areas for the United Provinces.
    • In 1609, the Dutch East India Company commissioned English explorer Henry Hudson who, in an attempt to find the fabled northwest passage to the Indies, discovered and claimed for the VOC parts of the present-day United States and Canada.
    • In 1621, a new company was established with a trading monopoly in the Americas and West Africa: the Dutch West India Company.
    • The new company sought recognition for New Netherland as a province, which was granted in 1623.
    • In 1626, the Director of the Dutch West India Company, Peter Minuit, purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape and started the construction of Fort Amsterdam, which grew to become the main port and capital, New Amsterdam .

  • The Economy of the Middle Colonies

    • The Netherlands granted an exclusive patent for trade in the New World to the Dutch East India Company.

  • Conclusion: Patterns of British Settlement in the Colonies

    • Its economic sway ranged from India, where the British East India Company had gained control over both trade and territory, to the West African coast, where British slave traders predominated, and to the British West Indies, whose lucrative sugar plantations, especially in Barbados and Jamaica, provided windfall profits for British planters.

  • The Boston Tea Party

    • In September and October of 1773, seven ships carrying British East India Company tea were sent to the colonies.
    • This act soon inspired further acts of resistance up and down the East Coast.

  • The Coercive Acts

    • This law closed the port of Boston until the East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea and the king was satisfied that order had been restored.

  • From New Netherland to New York

    • In 1609, Henry Hudson, an English explorer, was hired by the Flemish Protestants running the Dutch East India Company in Amsterdam to find a northeast passage to Asia.
    • The Dutch West India Company had introduced slavery in 1625.
    • When the colony fell, the company freed all its slaves, establishing early on a nucleus of free blacks.
    • After one of the proprietors sold part of the area to the Quakers, New Jersey was divided into East Jersey and West Jersey—two distinct provinces of the proprietary colony.

  • Mediterranean Trade and European Expansion

    • Although the Mongols had threatened Europe with pillage and destruction, Mongol states also unified much of Eurasia and, from 1206 on, the Pax Mongolica allowed safe trade routes and communication lines stretching from the Middle East to China—known as the silk road .
    • Most were Italians, as trade between Europe and the Middle East was controlled mainly by the Maritime Republics.
    • The close Italian links to the Levant raised great curiosity and commercial interest in countries that lay further east.
    • From the 8th century until the 15th century, they held the monopoly of European trade with the Middle East.
    • Muslim traders, mainly descendants of Arab sailors from Yemen and Oman, dominated maritime routes throughout the Indian Ocean, tapping source regions in the Far East and shipping for trading emporiums in India—mainly Kozhikode, westward to Ormus in the Persian Gulf and Jeddah in the Red Sea.

  • Conclusion: The Consequences of the British Parliamentary Acts

    • Almost all of the North American territory east of the Mississippi fell under Great Britain’s control, and British leaders took this opportunity to try to create a more coherent and unified empire after decades of lax oversight.
    • They also deeply resented the East India Company’s monopoly on the sale of tea in the American colonies; this resentment sprang from the knowledge that some members of Parliament had invested heavily in the company.

  • The Battle of New Orleans

    • Most of the senior officers were killed or wounded, including General Gibbs, killed leading the main attack column on the right comprising the 4th, 21st, 44th and 5th West India Regiments, and Colonel Rennie, leading a detachment of light companies of the 7th, 43rd, and 93rd on the left by the river .
    • General Lambert issued orders to withdraw after the defeat of their main army on the east bank and retreated, taking a few American prisoners and cannon with them.