French East India Company: founding. British East India Company: the story of the most criminal corporation in the world

Plan
Introduction
1 Operations in India
2 Operations in China
3 Army
4 Company in the feudal system of India
5 Trade
6 Monopoly
7 Decline of the company

Bibliography

Introduction

British East India Company East India Company), until 1707 - English East India Company - Joint-Stock Company, created on December 31, 1600 by decree of Elizabeth I and received extensive privileges for trading operations in India. In effect, the royal decree gave the company a monopoly on trade in India. The company initially had 125 shareholders and a capital of £72,000. The company was governed by a governor and a board of directors who were responsible to a meeting of shareholders. The commercial company soon acquired government and military functions, which it lost only in 1858.

Following the Dutch East India Company, the British also began to list its shares on the stock exchange.

Various titles have been used: "The Honorable East India Company" Honorable East India Company), "East India Company", "Bahadur Company".

The company also had interests outside India, seeking to provide safe routes to the British Isles. In 1620, she tried to capture Table Mountain on the territory of modern South Africa, and later occupied the island of St. Helena. A major problem for the Company was piracy, which reached its peak in 1695 when the pirate Henry Every captured the Mughal treasure fleet. The Company's troops held Napoleon on St. Helena; its products were attacked by American colonists during the Boston Tea Party, and the Company's shipyards served as a model for St. Petersburg.

The aggressive policy of the Company was expressed in provoking famine in Bengal, destroying monasteries in Tibet and waging the Opium Wars in China.

1. Operations in India

see also Dutch East India Company, French East India Company, Danish East India Company, Swedish East India Company, Portuguese East India Company

The company was founded in 1600, under the name of the Company of Merchants of London Trading in the East Indies. Its activities in India began in 1612, when the Great Mogul Jahangir allowed the establishment of a trading post in Surat.

In 1612, the company's armed forces inflicted a serious defeat on the Portuguese at the Battle of Suvali. In 1640, the local ruler of Vijayanagara allowed the establishment of a second trading post in Madras. In 1647, the company already had 23 trading posts in India. Indian fabrics (cotton and silk) are in incredible demand in Europe. Tea, grain, dyes, cotton, and later Bengal opium were also exported. In 1668, the Company leased the island of Bombay, a former Portuguese colony given to England as the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, who married Charles II. In 1687, the Company's headquarters in Western Asia were moved from Surat to Bombay. In 1687, the Company's settlement was founded in Calcutta, after appropriate permission from the Great Mogul. The Company's expansion into the subcontinent began; at the same time, the same expansion was carried out by a number of other European East India Companies - Dutch, French and Danish.

In 1757, at the Battle of Plassey, the troops of the British East India Company, led by Robert Clive, defeated the troops of the Bengali ruler Siraj-ud-Dowla - just a few volleys of British artillery put the Indians to flight. After the victory at Buxar (1764), the company received diwani - the right to rule Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, full control over the Nawab of Bengal and confiscated the Bengal treasury (valuables worth 5 million 260 thousand pounds sterling were seized). Robert Clive becomes the first British Governor of Bengal. Meanwhile, expansion continued around the bases in Bombay and Madras. The Anglo-Mysore Wars of 1766-1799 and the Anglo-Maratha Wars of 1772-1818 made the Company the dominant power south of the Sutlej River.

The British monopolized Bengal's foreign trade as well as the most important branches of intra-Bengal trade. Hundreds of thousands of Bengali artisans were forcibly assigned to the company's trading posts, where they were obliged to deliver their products at minimum prices. Taxes have risen sharply. The result was a terrible famine of 1769-1770, during which between 7 and 10 million Bengalis died. In the 1780s and 1790s, the famine in Bengal repeated: several million people died.

For almost a century, the company pursued a ruinous policy in its Indian possessions. The Great Calamity period), which resulted in the destruction of traditional crafts and the degradation of agriculture, which led to the death of up to 40 million Indians from starvation. According to the calculations of the famous American historian Brooks Adams (eng. Brooks Adams), in the first 15 years after the annexation of India, the British exported valuables worth £1 billion from Bengal. By 1840 the British ruled for the most part India. The unbridled exploitation of the Indian colonies was the most important source of the accumulation of British capital and the industrial revolution in England.

The expansion took two main forms. The first was the use of so-called subsidiary agreements, essentially feudal - local rulers transferred the management of foreign affairs to the Company and were obliged to pay a “subsidy” for the maintenance of the Company’s army. If payments were not made, the territory was annexed by the British. In addition, the local ruler undertook to maintain a British official ("resident") at his court. Thus, the company recognized "native states" led by Hindu Maharajas and Muslim Nawabs. The second form was direct rule.

"Subsidies" paid to the Company by local rulers were spent on recruiting troops, consisting mainly of the local population, thus the expansion was carried out by Indian hands and with Indian money. The spread of the system of “subsidiary agreements” was facilitated by the collapse of the Mughal Empire, which occurred towards the end of the 18th century. De facto, the territory of modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh consisted of several hundred independent principalities that were at war with each other.

The first ruler to accept the “subsidiary agreement” was the Nizam of Hyderabad. In some cases, such treaties were imposed by force; Thus, the ruler of Mysore refused to accept the treaty, but was forced to do so as a result of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. In 1802, the Maratha Union of Principalities was forced to sign a subsidiary treaty on the following terms:

1. A permanent Anglo-Sepoy army of 6 thousand people remains with the Peshwa (first minister).

2. A number of territorial districts are annexed by the Company.

3. Peshwa shall not sign any agreement without consulting the Company.

4. The Peshwa does not declare wars without consulting the Company.

5. Any territorial claims of the Peshwa against local princely states must be subject to Company arbitration.

6. Peshwa withdraws claims against Surat and Baroda.

7. The Peshwa recalls all Europeans from his service.

8. International affairs are carried out in consultation with the Company.

The most powerful opponents of the Company were two states formed on the ruins of the Mughal Empire - the Maratha Union and the Sikh state. The collapse of the Sikh Empire was facilitated by the chaos that ensued after the death of its founder, Ranjit Singh, in 1839. Civil strife broke out both between individual sardars (generals of the Sikh army and de facto major feudal lords) and between the Khalsa (Sikh community) and the darbar (court). In addition, the Sikh population experienced tensions with local Muslims, who were often willing to fight under British banners against the Sikhs.

At the end of the 18th century, under Governor General Richard Wellesley, active expansion began; The company captured Cochin (1791), Jaipur (1794), Travancore (1795), Hyderabad (1798), Mysore (1799), the principalities along the Sutlej River (1815), the Central Indian principalities (1819), Kutch and Gujarat (1819), Rajputana ( 1818), Bahawalpur (1833). The annexed provinces included Delhi (1803) and Sindh (1843). Punjab, North West Frontier and Kashmir were captured in 1849 during the Anglo-Sikh Wars. Kashmir was immediately sold to the Dogra dynasty, which ruled the princely state of Jammu, and became a “native state”. Berar was annexed in 1854, and Oud in 1856.

Britain saw the Russian Empire as its competitor in colonial expansion. Fearing Russian influence on Persia, the Company began to increase pressure on Afghanistan, and in 1839-1842 the First Anglo-Afghan War took place. Russia established a protectorate over the Khanate of Bukhara and annexed Samarkand in 1868, and a rivalry for influence in Central Asia began between the two empires, called the “Great Game” in the Anglo-Saxon tradition.

In 1857, there was a rebellion against the British East India Campaign, which is known in India as the First War of Independence or the Sepoy Mutiny. However, the rebellion was suppressed and British Empire established direct administrative control over almost the entire territory of South Asia.

2. Operations in China

In 1711 the Company founded a trade office in Chinese city Canton (Chinese: 广州 - Guangzhou) for tea purchases. First, tea is bought with silver, then it is exchanged for opium, which is grown on Indian (located mainly in Bengal) plantations owned by the Company.

Despite the Chinese government's ban on the import of opium from 1799, the company continued to smuggle opium at a rate of approximately 900 tons per year. The Company's Chinese trade was second in size only to its trade with India. For example, total cost convoy sent to England in 1804, in prices at that time reached £8,000,000. Its successful defense became a cause for national celebration.

Most of the funds earmarked for the purchase of Chinese tea are proceeds from the opium trade. By 1838, the illegal import of opium had already reached 1,400 tons per year, and the Chinese government introduced death penalty for opium smuggling.

1 . English (1600-1858) - private company English merchants for trade with the East Indies (as India, Southeast Asia and China were called in Europe in the 17th-18th centuries), which gradually turned into a state. English management organization holdings in India. In the 1st half. 17th century O.-I. The capital was an amorphous organization of London merchants who periodically pooled capital for trading. expeditions to the East Indies. From 1657 (Cromwell's charter) it became a joint stock company. company with permanent capital. Like bargaining. org-tion O.-I. K. sold in Asian countries and exported ind. to Europe. goods - cotton-boom. and silk fabrics, raw silk, indigo, opium, sugar, saltpeter, etc. After a long time. fight against competitors - Portugal, Dutch. and French East India Companies, English. private traders - and after a series of clashes with Indians. rulers (expulsion of the British from Bengal - 1687-1690, siege of Bombay by Mongol troops - 1690, etc.) O.-I. succeeded in the 17th century. create a network of trading posts and several in India. fortified strongholds (Madras, Bombay, Calcutta, etc.). In the 2nd half. 17th century O.-I. K. received from English. pr-va a number of state prerogatives. power: the right to declare war and make peace in Oet-India, to dispose of one’s own army and navy, to mint coins, to establish courts-martial. In 1708 it received a monopoly on trade with the East Indies. In 1717 O.-I. K. obtained from the Great Mogul Farrukhsiyar a firman for duty-free trade and tax collection in parts of Bengal. As a result, it lasts. wars english O.-I. K. defeated the French. O.-I. to. and to ser. 18th century became the only contender for the colony. dominance in India. After the Battle of Plassey (1757), Bengal actually became the possession of O.-I. j. After the Battle of Buxar (1764), Bihar and Orissa were also captured. In the end 18th century as a result of the Anglo-Mysore wars O.-I. K. captured South. India, made Mysore and Hyderabad its tributaries. By 1818 they were subordinated to the North. India and Maharashtra (see Anglo-Maratha Wars). Last independent ind. state - the state of the Sikhs in Punjab - was annexed in 1849 (see Anglo-Sikh wars). After the capture of Ind. territories ch. means of enriching O.-I. It was no longer trade, but direct exploitation of ind. peasants by collecting land. tax To enhance the exploitation of O.-I. K. carried out restructuring of the agricultural sector. relations in India (see Zamindari, Rayatvari). The urban craft began to go bankrupt as a result of competition from the English. goods. Indian merchants found themselves in the position of dependent junior partners. Loot O.-I. because in India, capital played a big role in the successful completion of the industry. revolution in England. ABOUT. -AND. K. prepared the transformation of India into a sales market and source of raw materials for the English. prom-sti. From ser. 18th century English began to claim participation in the profits from the exploitation of India. prom. bourgeoisie; she spoke out against the uncontrolled management of O.-I. k. in India. Acts on the administration of India, adopted by the English. Parliament (see North Bill and Pitt Law 1784), leadership of O.-I. K. was brought under the control of the English. pr-va, the governor general of the company's holdings began to be appointed by the prime minister, dividends were limited to 10%; in 1813 the company's trade monopoly with India was abolished. Act of Parliament 1833 O.-I. k. was abolished as a trade. organization. Finally, in 1858, in conditions of aggravation of internal politics. situation in India, which resulted in the Indian popular uprising of 1857-59, O.-I. K. was liquidated, and India was directly subordinate to the Secretary of State (Minister) for Indian and English Affairs. Viceroy (1858-1947). Lit.: Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 9, p. 109-10, 130-36, 142-44, 151-60, 203-07, 224-30; Antonova K. A., English. conquest of India in the 18th century, M., 1958; Chicherov A.I., Economic development of India before the English. conquest (Craft and trade in the 16th-18th centuries), M., 1965; Mukherjee Ft., The rise and fall of the East Indian Company, V., 1958. L. B. Alaev. Moscow. 2 . (Oost Indische Compagnie) Dutch (Dutch), United O.-I. k., - monopoly bargaining. company existing 1602-1798; Ch. a weapon, with the help of which the Netherlands. The bourgeoisie created the Dutch colonial empire through violence, extortion and seizure. The first companies trading with overseas countries arose in Holland in the 90s. 16th century By decision of Gen. states on March 20, 1602 they were united into O.-I. in order to suppress their mutual competition and develop a unified policy in overseas trade. The former ones are independent. The companies became its branches (chambers) - 4 in Amsterdam, 2 each in Zeeland and Rotterdam, 1 for Delft and 1 for Hoorn and Enkhuizen (jointly). Accordingly, the quotas of these chambers were 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 (Delft and Rotterdam together) and 1/8 main. capital O.-I. k., which initially consisted of 6.5 million florins. The chambers were controlled by the boards of the chief. shareholders who owned shares of at least 1000 flam. lbs. A general directorate was created consisting of 17 directors (including 8 from Amsterdam, 4 from Zealand). Zone O.-I. It extended from the Cape of Good Hope to the Strait of Magellan. Throughout this entire space, it had a monopoly on trade and navigation, duty-free transportation of goods to the metropolis, the creation of trading posts, fortresses, the recruitment and maintenance of troops, the fleet, the conduct of legal proceedings, the conclusion of international agreements. contracts, etc., i.e. all state rights. sovereignty exercised by O.-I. on behalf of Gen. states of the republic. Own administration of O.-I. The cathedral was created in 1609 (from 1619, during the governorship of Jan Pieterszoon Kuhn, with a permanent residence in Batavia). Relying on your bargaining. and military power, O.-I. K. expelled the Portuguese, Spaniards and English from the Moluccas, created trading posts on the coast of India, Ceylon and other places. At the same time O.-I. K. exterminated the local population of entire islands, suppressed the uprisings of the natives, in order to maintain high monopoly prices for colon. the goods were rapaciously destroyed by the spice thickets. In these ways O.-I. K. ensured the payment of huge dividends to its shareholders - an average of 18% for the entire period 1602-1798, and several times. times higher in the heyday (mid-17th century). Shareholders O.-I. there were the richest merchants from the regency families (Jan Oldenbarnevelt himself contributed to its organization), which allowed it not only to arbitrarily rule in the colonies, but also to influence politics and government in the direction it desired. apparatus of the republic. Wars with England and competition between the English O.-I. to., abuses, predation and corruption of the administration led O. -AND. to a decline that was especially pronounced in the 18th century. As a result, the 4th Anglo-Gol. war (1780-84) O.-I. K. lost many trading posts and fortresses. In 1796 its debts amounted to 120 million florins. In 1798 O.-I. k. was liquidated, and all its property and assets became the property of the Batavian Republic. (The O.-I.K. privileges expired on December 31, 1799). Source or T. see under Art. Dutch Colonial Empire, Indonesia. A. N. Chistozvonov. Moscow. 3 . French (1664-1719) - trade. a company organized at the initiative of Colbert with the aim of monopolizing trade with India. Received from the French. pr-va monopoly right of navigation and trade in the Pacific and Ind. oceans. On ind. coast of O.-I. K. had several. trading posts (Masulipatam, Mahe, Chandernagore, Calicut, etc.). The center of O.-I.'s possessions There was Pondicherry in India. O.-I. K. supervised the queens. production Wore a feudal character. Its development was hampered by the petty tutelage of court circles and the regulation of its trade. government activities. commissioners; in 1700 the king limited her privileges. Later it was absorbed by the created Low Ind. a company that monopolized almost all of France's overseas trade.

What did they trade?

The English merchants who created the East India Company in 1600 sought to gain access to eastern goods that were in demand in Europe. These were Indian fabrics, Malay pepper, dyes, tea, grains. If Elizabeth I granted the company the right to a trade monopoly in the East for 15 years, then James I made this privilege indefinite.

The 18th century opened up for Europeans new way get rich quick - opium. The opium poppy from which the drug was obtained was grown in India. The finished potion was sold in neighboring China. In 1799, the Chinese authorities banned the trade in opium, and later introduced the death penalty.

Chinese opium smokers

Draconian laws did not stop the company - it took up smuggling. The British government tacitly supported these illegal activities. The expansion of trade led to two Opium Wars in 1839-1842 and 1856-1860. Qing China lost every time, made economic concessions, established preferential customs tariffs and paid gigantic indemnities.

In 1830 the company sold 1,500 tons of opium

Other important exports from India to Europe for the company were satin, taffeta, silk, saltpeter, coffee, rice, indigo, etc. Due frequent cases famine, plantation farming was introduced in the colonies. Tea was in great demand in the metropolis and its American possessions. In 1773, a cargo of tea belonging to the East India Company was destroyed in Boston Harbor during a protest against the actions of the British government. This episode (the Boston Tea Party) was the impetus for the American Revolution and the American War of Independence.

How things stood with European competitors

The British East India Company was not alone. There were similar organizations in Holland and France. However, it was the English experience that turned out to be the most successful. The French company was completely dependent on the state; the expansion of the Dutch company stopped in the middle of the 17th century, and later it lost the Indian market to British competitors.

The irony is that the British were originally interested in the islands South-East Asia. But it was precisely because of the Dutch that they failed to gain a foothold in the disputed region. The ousted British company has refocused on India. There she earned her fabulous capital.

How India became British

East India trading post in Bengal, 1795

First possession Honorable company(as it was sometimes called) became a trading post in Surat in western India. The trading settlement was secured by the British in 1612 after defeating the Portuguese at the Battle of Suvali. The Portuguese colonial empire was never able to stop the onslaught of its opponents in India. In 1668, she leased Bombay to the company, where the organization's headquarters were soon moved.

The largest Indian state proper at that time was the Mughal Empire. In Childe's War (1686 - 1690), the British were defeated. However, already in the first half of the 18th century, due to internal contradictions, the previously monolithic empire began to disintegrate on its own. The map of India began to look like a patchwork quilt. The disunited feudal princes could no longer stop the expansion of the trading company, which was increasingly looking like a military-political force.

The Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763) was fought not only in continental Europe, but also in the colonies. In India, the interests of the British clashed with the interests of the French. Victory here again went to the British company. Having finally gotten rid of its European competitors, it established control over Bengal, a region in eastern India and modern Bangladesh.

Something went wrong

The end of the East India Company was not caused by native revolts or losses. She could not withstand the pressure of her own state. For many years, the crown and the joint stock company coexisted on the principle of mutual benefit. The company received a monopoly from the state and support at the diplomatic level, and the government had a convenient buffer in the east, which generated income and allowed it to avoid direct annexation of native principalities.

Everything changed after the Seven Years' War. The large-scale conflict was not in vain: the British treasury was depleted. Meanwhile, the company continued to grow richer. In 1765, in addition to exclusive trading privileges, it received the right to collect Bengali taxes and began to serve as the colonial administration.

London headquarters of the East India Company in the TV series Taboo

The organization has reached the pinnacle of its power and influence. But by its nature it was the fruit of capitalism in a pre-industrial economy. Meanwhile, the industrial revolution began in the metropolis. Moreover, in London the number of opponents of the East Indian monopoly increased.

The company's monopoly was abolished under pressure from industrialists

In 1773, Parliament passed the Regulatory Act. The company was now required to report to the ministries of foreign affairs and finance. 20 years later, part of its fleet went to independent merchants. Finally, on July 1, 1813 (while the war with Napoleon was still going on and the country was experiencing a continental blockade), the company's trade monopoly was abolished. At the same time, the government took away more and more levers of internal governance of India, depriving the “state within a state” of administrative functions.

How it all ended

The British East India Company is unique in that it was an alternative to the state in India. Independent management of the colonies, replacement of trade profits with tax revenues - all this ran counter to the interests of the authorities who were building the largest power of their time.

The company appeared under Elizabeth I and disappeared under Victoria.

1858 is the year the Indian Administration Act was passed. The document declared that the country was now under the sovereignty of the crown. The inhabitants of the subcontinent became Victoria's subjects. The act came at the height of the Sepoy Mutiny. Although it was suppressed by the colonial administration, local dissatisfaction with extortions and other hardships showed the obvious failure of the company's policies. It has completely outlived its usefulness as an administrative institution. And its economic decisions (for example, the mass introduction of continuous production of fabrics) led to the decline of entire industries. Subsequently, the organization existed exclusively as a commercial one. In 1874 it was liquidated.

East India Company I East India Company

English (1600-1858), a private company for trade with the East Indies (India and Southeast Asia) and China, which gradually turned into a political organization and apparatus of the English government for the exploitation and management of occupied territories. Since 1623 O.-I. K. concentrated its activities in India, from where it exported fabrics, yarn, indigo, opium, and saltpeter to Asian countries, as well as to Europe. In the 1st half of the 17th century. trade was carried out mainly through Surat; later the main strongholds were the founded O.-I. K. Madras, Bombay, Calcutta. His influence in India O.-I. K. established itself in the fight against European rivals (Portuguese, Dutch and French East India Companies) and local rulers, using bribery, blackmail and military force. Having won the wars of the 18th century. the French Indian Company (founded in 1719 on the basis of the East India and other French trading companies), the English O.-I. K. essentially monopolized the exploitation of India. Already in the 17th century. O.-I. The country acquired a number of state prerogatives: the right to wage war and make peace (1661), mint coins, have courts-martial, and have full control over its troops and fleet (1686). After 1757 (Battle of Plassey) it captured Bengal and a number of other territories. From the 2nd half of the 18th century. the basis of O.-I.’s activities It became not trade, but the collection of taxes, administration and robbery of occupied territories. By 1849 O.-I. K. subjugated basically all of India and, by 1852, Lower Burma. Income from trade, taxes, and robbery served important source initial accumulation of capital (See Initial accumulation of capital).

Colonial exploitation of India O.-I. This led to the death and impoverishment of millions of Indians, the decline of commercial handicraft production, the ruin of agriculture, and significant changes in agrarian relations.

From the middle of the 18th century. lack of control O.-I. It began to cause discontent among the strengthened English industrial bourgeoisie, which was claiming to share in the profits from the exploitation of India. As a result of the adoption by the English Parliament of a number of acts (1773, 1784, 1813, 1833, 1853), the Board of Directors of O.-I. K. was subordinate to the Control Council appointed by the king; Governor-General of the Domain O.-I. K. began to be appointed prime minister; the dividend was capped at 10%. Monopoly O.-I. the restriction on trade with India was abolished in 1813, and from 1833 trading activity

O.-I. was generally prohibited. In 1858, during the Indian People's Uprising of 1857-59 (See Indian People's Uprising of 1857-59) O.-I. The company was liquidated (with payment of compensation to shareholders of 3 million pounds sterling). India began to report directly to the Secretary of State (Minister) for Indian Affairs and the British Viceroy. Lit.:

Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 9; Antonova K. A., The English conquest of India in the 18th century, M., 1958; The Cambridge history of India, v. 5, Camb., 1929; Mukherjee R., The rise and fall of the East India company, B., 1958.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .

See what the "East India Company" is in other dictionaries:

The name of a number of trading societies in European countries of the colonial era. Each of the major powers established own company, endowed with a monopoly right to trade with the East Indies: The British East India Company was founded in 1600... ... Wikipedia

I English (1600 1858), a company of English merchants mainly for trade with the East Indies (the name of the territory of India and some other countries of South and Southeast Asia); gradually turned into government organization on management... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

English, company (1600 1858) of English merchants mainly for trade with the East Indies (the name of the territory of India and some other countries of South and Southeast Asia); gradually turned into a state management organization... ... Modern encyclopedia

English (1600 1858) company of English merchants mainly for trade with the East Indies (the name of the territory of India and some other countries of South and Southeast Asia); gradually turned into a state organization for managing English... ...

Dutch trading company (1602 1798). It had a monopoly on trade, navigation, placing trading posts, etc. in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Captured significant territories in Southeast Asia (on the island of Java, etc.) and on... ... Modern encyclopedia

Netherlands Trading Company (1602 1798). It had a monopoly on trade, navigation, placing trading posts, etc. in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Captured significant territories in the South-East. Asia (on the island of Java, etc.) and in southern Africa... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

1 . English (1600 1858) private company English. merchants for trade with the East Indies (as India, Southeast Asia and China were called in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries), which gradually turned into a state. organization for the management of English. holdings in India. In the 1st half. 17 at... Soviet historical encyclopedia

East India Company- (source) ... Spelling dictionary of the Russian language

OST INDIA COMPANY is an English private company for trade with the countries of East India (see OST INDIA) and China, which gradually turned into an organization for the management of English possessions in India; existed in 1600-1858. Creation of company B... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

OST INDIA COMPANY Dutch (United East India Company), a trading company of Dutch merchants that existed in 1602-1798. The Dutch East India Company had a monopoly on trade, navigation, and the establishment of trading posts... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• The history of Elizabeth, Queen of England. Volume 2, . St. Petersburg, 1795. Printing house of I. K. Shnor. Owner's binding. Bandage spine. The condition is good. Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603) - Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from November 17...

The British East India Company's 400-Year Business Pattern: Armed Robbery

About 250 years ago, a new word appeared in the English language - loot - today translated as "loot", "trophy" and "freebie". The origin of the verbal acquisition is India, where “lūṭ” meant booty obtained by robbery. It is this word that can characterize the entire essence of the second transnational corporation on our planet, known as the East India Company.

Coat of arms of the East India Company. The slogan on it “Auspicio regis et senatus angliae” is translated from Latin as “Under the authority of the Crown and Parliament of England.”

Let me note right away: the name “East India Company” does not directly refer to England. It reflects the sphere of colonial interests of European enterprises - South Asia. Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Denmark and even Germany (Prussia) had their own East India companies. However, only one joint-stock enterprise surpassed the scale of other national trading companies and absorbed their colonial territories - the British East India Company. Therefore, in this article, the “East India Company” refers to an English enterprise.

England on the way to Great Britain

In the 17th century, Britain was one of the poorest countries Western Europe. The series of crises left to the kingdom by the rebellious Henry VIII - the abandonment of Catholicism, confusion with the succession to the throne and the open hostility of all the "sister" states in the Roman past - it seemed that these problems could only be resolved by the marriage of Elizabeth Tudor with the scion of the royal house of Spain.

Queen Elizabeth I of England. Her stubborn opposition to Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands led to the creation of the English East India Company

But the youngest daughter of a Protestant king was not interested in marriage, nor was she interested in the Catholic faith. She intended to stay Queen of England and on his deathbed, without sharing power with anyone at all. The daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, demonstrated to the royal houses of Europe the same rebellious disposition as her father.

In England, Elizabeth Tudor, the most revered British queen, three years before her death supported the creation of the merchant maritime joint-stock company East India Company, which later became the greatest transnational corporation on our planet in the 17th-19th centuries AD. By the way, the modern popularity of the English language on Earth was largely thanks to the East India Company.

Meanwhile, the entire European colonial history, starting from the end of the 15th century, was based on a single goal - to reach India and China by sea.

England becomes a sea power

500 years ago everyone was looking for this mysterious and fabulously rich country of spices, gold and diamonds - the Spaniards, the French, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Danes... As a result, the Spaniards found South America and began to extract resources from there (the conquest). The rest, having experienced many naval failures, focused on Africa. India first became a colonial star in the crown of Portugal - the route to it around the African continent was discovered by the navigator-privateer Vasco da Gama, who arrived on the Indian shores in 1498 on three ships.

Vasco da Gama, Portuguese navigator and privateer. Discoverer of the sea route along the coast of the African continent in Indian Ocean

Watching the neighbors get richer European states With each arrival of sea vessels from distant overseas colonies, Henry VII Tudor ordered the construction of the first large-capacity ships for the needs of England. By the accession of his son Henry VIII to the English throne in 1509, the kingdom had five seagoing vessels, and five years later there were already 30 or more.

However, the possession of a full-fledged ocean fleet did not in itself create opportunities for colonial enrichment - England had neither nautical charts nor experienced captains who knew how to follow a course across the ocean expanses. Routes to the southwest (to South America), mastered by the Spaniards and Portuguese, were not suitable for English trading expeditions - colonial conflicts with Spain or Portugal were completely unnecessary for the British crown. Of course, English privateers periodically attacked Spanish galleons loaded with silver, but this type of sailor was supported by the English authorities behind the scenes. And they were always ready to abandon privateers caught in the unsuccessful seizure of colonial cargo.

British search for India

The Genoese navigator John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) proposed to Henry VII a trip west across the sea (Europeans did not know about the existence of the Atlantic Ocean at that time) to find India. The chances of success increased with the news that the Spanish crown, thanks to the Portuguese navigator Christopher Columbus, had found a sea route to India in 1492 (in fact, South America had been discovered, but neither Columbus nor anyone else knew about it).

Giovanni Caboto (eng. John Cabot) Genoese navigator, in search of a sea route to India, discovered the route through the Atlantic Ocean to North America

With the blessing of the English crown and with the financing of Bristol merchants, John Cabot reached the coast on one ship in 1497 North America(the territory of modern Canada), considering these lands the “blessed Isles of Brazil” - remote eastern part India. However, English geographers decided that the land found by Cabot was part of the “kingdom of the Great Khan” (as China was called in Europe). Subsequently, it was Cabot's discovery and his declaration of England's right to own the lands of North America that led to the formation of the American colony of Great Britain and the emergence of the modern United States.

The second attempt to sail to India, or at least to China, was made by a squadron under the command of English navigators Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor. A British expedition of three ships was sent east across the northern seas in 1553. After many months of travel and wintering off the coast of Lapland, Chancellor's only ship entered the Dvina Bay of the White Sea. The crews of two other ships that missed Chancellor died during the winter at the mouth of the Varzina River.

Richard Chancellor, English navigator, at a reception with Ivan the Terrible (engraving). He opened the northern sea route to Russia and participated in organizing trade relations with it, although he initially tried to sail to India

Having met with local fishermen, Richard Chancellor learned that he was not in India, but in Russia. The gracious reception of English sailors by Ivan IV the Terrible led to active centuries-old trade between England and Russia with the formation of the privileged merchant monopoly “Moscow Company” (Muscovy Company). However, the Russian Tsar, who waged frequent wars, was exclusively interested in English military goods (gunpowder, guns, cannon iron, etc.), which caused protests from the kings of Sweden, the Polish-Lithuanian Union, Denmark and the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. Therefore, trade between the British and the Russians did not yield high profits.

How England found India

The first English navigator to discover the sea route to India was the privateer James Lancaster. Having obtained detailed copies of Portuguese nautical charts from the bankrupt Dutch merchant Jan Huygen van Linschoten and leading a flotilla of three paramilitary ships, Lancaster reached the Indian Ocean in 1591-1592 and went east further than India - to the Malacca Peninsula. Pursuing his favorite activity - robbing all ships nearby - Lancaster spent a year near Penang, Malaysia. In 1594 he returned to England, becoming the discoverer of India for the English crown and the first captain hired to transport goods to South Asia.

James Lancaster, English navigator and privateer, who opened the way for Britain to South Asia. Using Van Linschoten's nautical maps with routes, depths and shoals marked on them, he circumnavigated Africa and entered the Indian Ocean, where he plundered the ships of Asian merchants

However, the reason for the formation of the East India Company was not the acquisition of sea maps with a route to India - Dutch merchants doubled the price of pepper. It was for this reason that English merchants turned to Queen Elizabeth I for support, who allowed direct monopoly trade with an overseas state on terms favorable to the British crown (royal charter). To confuse the Portuguese and Dutch, India was called the country of the “Great Mughals”.

Apart from the British, no one called the Indian Timurid (Baburid) empire, which controlled most of modern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the south-eastern lands of Afghanistan, the “Great Mughals”. The rulers (padishahs) of this empire themselves called their state Gurkanian (from the word “Gurkānī” - from the Persian “son-in-law of the khan”), considering themselves descendants of the great Asian conqueror Tamerlane.

How the East India Company solved the Portuguese problem

The first four voyages of the British, made in 1601-1608, made the Portuguese nervous, but the two kingdoms still had no reason for direct colonial conflicts. England did not yet have land holdings in South Asia. Portugal, after several battles with Arab rulers in the 16th century, controlled most of the southern coast of the Persian Gulf, the island of Mozambique, the Azores, Bombay and Goa in its entirety, as well as several cities in the Indian state of Gujarat. And the Portuguese successfully repelled the attacks of the Ottoman Turks, finally establishing their dominant position in the South Asian territories.

The flag of the East India Company on its merchant warships

In an attempt to restore the status quo, four ships of the Portuguese fleet attempted to blockade and destroy four ships of the East India Company in late November 1612 off the town of Suvali (Gujarat, India). Captain James Best, who commanded the English flotilla, managed not only to repel the attacks of the Portuguese, but also to win the battle.

What’s interesting is that it was the unsuccessful attack by the Portuguese that convinced Padishah Jahangir of the Mughal Empire to give permission to create a trading post for the East India Company. He saw in the British an opportunity to conduct honest transactions, especially since the British East India Company did not interfere in the affairs of local religious denominations. And the Portuguese actively propagated Catholicism and attacked ships with Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca, thanks to which they enjoyed the full support of the papal throne. By the way, the envoy to the English King James I, sent overland by James Best after reaching an agreement with the padishah of the Great Mughals - Anthony Starkey - was poisoned along the way by Jesuit monks in the interests of the Pope.

Charles II, King of England. His marriage to Catherine of Braganna, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, solved the problems of the East India Company in the Portuguese and Indian colonies

It was after the naval battle with the Portuguese that the leaders of the British East India Company decided to create their own navy and land army. Investments in trade with the spice countries needed protection, which the English crown could not and did not want to provide.

Since 1662, the colonial conflict in South Asia between Portugal and England was exhausted - after the restoration of the crown in Great Britain, Charles II married the daughter of the Portuguese king, receiving Bombay and Tangier as a dowry (the king transferred them to the East India Company for a symbolic fee of 10 pounds sterling per year). Portugal needed the English fleet to protect its colonies in South America from the encroachments of the Spaniards - they considered India not so valuable.

How the East India Company solved the problem of France

The French version of the East India Company arose in 1664 and a little over 10 years later its representatives founded two Indian colonies - Pondicherry and Chandernagore. For the next 100 years, the southeastern part of the Hindustan Peninsula was controlled by French colonialists.

However, in 1756, the Seven Years' War began in Europe, in which England and France were among the opponents. A year later, hostilities began between French and English colonial troops on the territory of Hindustan.

Major General Robert Clive in his youth. Under his leadership, the army of the British East India Company took full control of the entire Indian subcontinent.

The French general Thomas Arthur, Comte de Lally made the biggest strategic mistake - he refused to support the young Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-Daula, who opposed the British and captured Calcutta. Lally hoped to maintain neutrality with the British colonial forces, but as soon as East India Company General Robert Clive forced the Bengal ruler to surrender, East India Company troops attacked French trading posts and military fortifications.

Having been defeated by the British at Fort Vandivash, Comte de Lally tried to take refuge in the French fortress of Pondicherry with what troops he had left (about 600 people). The colonial military squadron of France under the command of Admiral Antoine d'Ashe, which suffered high losses in the crews of the ships after three battles with the fleet of the East India Company at Cuddalore in 1758-1759, went to the island of Mauritius. General de Lally had no hope of help from the sea. After a 4.5 month siege, the French surrendered the fortress in January 1761 to the troops of the British East India Company.

The aftermath of the Battle of Pondicherry, which took place in 1760-61 and became part of the Seven Years' War. The French fort of Pondicherry was completely dismantled by the East India Company

The British subsequently demolished the entire Pondicherry fort to erase any reminders of French colonial rule. Although France regained some of its Indian colonial territories at the end of the Seven Years' War, it lost the right to build forts and maintain troops in Bengal. In 1769, the French completely abandoned South Asia, and the British East India Company took full control of the entire Hindustan.

How the East India Company solved the Dutch problem

Military conflicts between England and the Netherlands occurred four times during the period 1652-1794; Great Britain received the greatest benefit from these wars. The Dutch were direct competitors of the British in the struggle for colonial sales markets - their merchant fleet, although poorly armed, was large.

The emerging English bourgeois class needed to expand trade. A series of state upheavals in England, leading to the English Revolution and the execution of Charles I, brought British parliamentarians to the forefront in resolving external and internal government issues. The leaders of the East India Company took advantage of this - they bribed parliamentarians with shares of their corporation, encouraging them to support the interests of the enterprise in order to extract the greatest personal income.

The battle of the English and Dutch fleets during the first Anglo-Dutch War

As a result of the last, fourth war with the Netherlands, a peace treaty (Paris) was concluded in 1783. The Dutch East India Company was forced to transfer Nagapattinam, a city in southern India that had belonged to the Netherlands for over 150 years, to Great Britain. As a result, the East India Enterprise of the Dutch merchants suffered bankruptcy and ceased to exist in 1798. And British merchant ships received full right to conduct unhindered trade in the former colonial territories of the Dutch East Indies, which now belonged to the crown of the Netherlands.

Nationalization of the East India Company by Great Britain

Having achieved monopoly ownership of all the territories of Colonial India during the wars of the 17th-19th centuries, the British mega-corporation began to pump out maximum profits from the natives. Its representatives, who were the de facto rulers of numerous states in South Asia, demanded that the puppet native authorities sharply limit the cultivation of grain crops and grow opium poppies, indigo and tea.

Also, the London board of the East India Company decided to increase profits by annual increase land tax for farmers of Hindustan - the entire territory of the peninsula and significant areas adjacent to it from the west, east and north belonged to the British corporation. Famine years became frequent in British India - in the first case, which occurred in 1769-1773, more than 10 million local residents (a third of the population) died of hunger in Bengal alone.

The photo shows a starving Hindu family during the Bengal famine that occurred in 1943, i.e. much later than the events described. However, the situation during the famine years in Hindustan, ruled by the East India Company, was much worse

Mass famine among the population of Colonial India, during the period of its complete control of the East India Company, occurred in 1783-1784 (11 million people died), in 1791-1792 (11 million people died), in 1837-1838 ( 800 thousand people died), 1868-1870 (1.5 million people died).

An indicative nuance: during the fight against the famine of 1873-1874, the company manager, Richard Temple, overestimated the possible consequences of another drought and spent “too much” money on purchasing Burmese grain for the starving population of the colonies - 100,000 tons of grain were purchased and delivered in vain. Although mortality from starvation was kept to a minimum (only a few died), Temple was harshly criticized in the UK parliament and media.

Sir Richard Temple II, 1st Baronet of Great Britain. Led the East Indian colonies
companies in 1846-1880

To whitewash himself, Richard Temple conducted experiments to determine the minimum standard of nutrition for the natives - he ordered several dozen healthy and strong Indians to be selected for a labor camp, to keep each test group on a certain diet and to wait to see who would survive and who would die of starvation. In his memoirs, Temple wrote: some of the Indian boys in the labor camp were so weak from hunger that they looked like living skeletons, completely unable to work. It is worth noting that for “Indian services” to Great Britain, Richard Temple received the title of baronet.

The English leaders of the East India Company were not interested in the lack of food for the population of the Indian colonies. However, the widespread famine caused another problem - popular uprisings began in India. Previously, the British managed to minimize the risk of uprisings due to the social disunity of the population of Hindustan. Castes, many religious denominations, ethnic strife and tribal conflicts between the hereditary rulers of numerous mini-states - these were luxurious conditions for foreign colonial control of Indian lands.

83-year-old Bahadur Shah II, the last ruler of the Mughals. In a photo taken in 1858, he awaits judgment in a colonial court for his role in the Sepoy Mutiny. His children, capable of inheriting the padishah's throne, have been executed by this time

However, the increasing frequency of famines against the backdrop of the openly indifferent behavior of East India Company employees towards the indigenous population of the colonies caused an uprising in the ranks of the colonial army, most of which were recruited from the inhabitants of Hindustan. In 1857-1859, the Sepoy Rebellion took place, supported by many local rulers of South Asia, including the last Mughal ruler, Bahadur Shah II. The suppression of the uprising took more than three years; the mercenary troops of the East India Company drowned the lands of Hindustan in blood, slaughtering about 10 million people.

Lord Henry John Temple, III Viscount Palmerston. He submitted to the British Parliament an act on the transfer of colonial India from the East Indian Colony to the authority of the English Crown.

Against the backdrop of ugly news from the Indian colonies, the British Parliament by a majority vote adopted in 1858 the “Act for the Better Government of India,” introduced by Henry John Temple, third Viscount Palmerston (Lord Palmerston). Under the terms of the Act, the administration of the British colonies in South Asia is transferred to the British crown, i.e. Queen Victoria of Great Britain also becomes Queen of India.

The East India Company is recognized as failing to manage the Indian colonial territories, and therefore should be closed. Having completed the transfer of affairs and property to Her Majesty's Secretary of State and the Indian Indian civil service, in 1874 the East India Company ceases to exist.

The uniqueness of the British East India Company

Any of today's megacorporations - Google, Exxon Mobile or Pepsi Co - with their multibillion-dollar annual turnover of funds, are but a faint semblance of the powerful British corporation created in 1600. From the formation of the British East India Company, over the next 100 years, all its business operations were managed by no more than 35 people, who formed a permanent staff at the head office in Leadenhall Street, London. All other personnel, including captains and crews of ships, as well as the extensive military contingent, were hired for a strictly limited period of time by contracts.

The territory of South Asia, which was a colony of the East India Company. After the complete closure of the trading corporation in 1874, the lands marked on the map came under British rule

The East India Company's army and navy were three times the size of the royal armed forces. At the beginning of the 18th century, the corporate army numbered 260,000 people; the navy consisted of more than 50 multi-deck ships with modern cannon weapons and crews trained for battle.

By the way, it was on the remote island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, discovered by the Portuguese, originally belonging to the Netherlands and captured from them by the East India Company in 1569, that Napoleon Bonaparte was kept under the control of the troops of the trading corporation until the end of his days. It was completely impossible for the former Emperor of France to escape from this island, like the Italian Elbe, as well as to win over any of the Nepalese Gurkha soldiers to his side.

The position of the island of St. Helena, where Napoleon Bonaparte was kept until his death

The corporation's annual turnover in its best period - the first half of the 18th century - was equal to half of the entire annual turnover of Great Britain (hundreds of millions of pounds sterling). The East India Company minted its coins throughout its colonies, which together exceeded the area of ​​the British Isles.

Having made a huge contribution to the Pax Britannica project, the leadership of the East India Company also influenced the development of societies and political forces in the most different parts Earth. For example, Chinatowns in the United States appeared due to the Opium Wars started by the corporation. And the reason for the struggle for independence for American settlers was given by the “Boston Tea Party” - the supply of tea by the East India Company at dumping prices.

Coin minted by the East India Company for settlement within the Indian colonies

Mass murders indiscriminately by gender and age, torture, blackmail, famine, bribery, deception, intimidation, robberies, bloody military operations by “wild” troops of peoples alien to the local population - the leaders of the British East India Company did not suffer from philanthropy. The uncontrollable greed of the second mega-corporation, its irresistible desire to maintain a monopoly position in the markets of our planet - that is what led the East India Company forward. However, for any modern corporation this approach to business is the norm.

In conclusion, an explanation is required for attentive guests of the swagor.com blog - why did I call the English East India the second mega-corporation in the historical past of the Earth? Because I consider the first and more ancient mega-corporation that still exists today - the papal throne and the Catholic Church.