Chartered by Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600 as a joint-stock company holding a royal monopoly on English trade with the East Indies. The joint-stock structure let many investors share the risk and return of individual voyages, then of the whole enterprise once permanent, pooled capital replaced voyage-by-voyage subscriptions in the 1650s. Over the following two centuries the Company grew from a trading concern into a quasi-governmental ruler of large parts of India, raising its own armies and administering its own courts, until the 1857 rebellion led the British Crown to assume direct rule and the Company itself was formally dissolved in 1874.
Facts
Founding Year Founding Date Headquarters Chronology
Dissolved YearWikidata Q83164, property P576 (dissolved, abolished or demolished date). Classification
Institution SubtypeHistoric Trading Company 1 Geography
Country or Jurisdiction ServedUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 2 Wikidata Q83164, property P17 (country). East India Company
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FAQs
How did the East India Company come to an end?
Parliament formally dissolved the Company on 1 June 1874 after the Crown took over its Indian territories in 1858.
After the 1857 to 1858 uprising against British rule, the British Crown took full possession of the Company's territories in India in 1858. The Company itself was formally dissolved by Parliament on 1 June 1874.
Connections
Critiqued Here
Adam Smith, Economists Source An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsAdam Smith
Associated With
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Opium Wars, Events The East India Company held the Bengal opium monopoly that supplied the trade Britain went to war to protect.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Sources
1. East India Company (Wikipedia)
In Group: East India Companies, LeadQuote, In Group: East India Companies, Lead
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874.
2. Wikidata
Wikimedia Foundation
3. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.- East India Company
- East India Company, Founding
- charter granted 31 December 1600
- Associated With: Opium Wars
View the Source An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith, 1776Associated With: Adam Smith, Book IV, Chapter VII, Part III; Book V, Chapter I, Part III
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