Imperial British East Africa Company

The Imperial British East Africa Company was a commercial association founded to develop African trade in areas controlled by the British Empire. It was incorporated in London on 18 April 1888 and granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria on 6 September 1888. It was led by the Scotsman William Mackinnon and built on his own company's existing trading activities in the region, encouraged by the British government's grant of an imperial charter, though what that charter actually meant in practice remained unclear. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/