East India Company

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This article is about the 17th-19th century English trading company. For other uses, see East
India Company (disambiguation).
"East India Trading Company" redirects here. For the fictional company featured in the Pirates
of the Caribbean film series, see East India Trading Co. (Pirates of the Caribbean).

East India Company

Founded 1600

Headquarters London

Colonial India

Portuguese India 1510–1961

Dutch India 1605–1825

Danish India 1696–1869

French India 1759–1954

British India 1613–1947

East India Company 1612–1757

Company rule in India 1757–1857

British Raj 1858–1947

British rule in Burma 1824–1867

Princely states 1765–1947

 Partition of India 1947

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The East India Company (also the East India Trading Company, English East India
Company,[1] and then the British East India Company)[2] was an early English joint-stock
company[3] that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up
trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China. The oldest among several similarly
formed European East India Companies, the Company was granted an English Royal Charter,
under the name Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies, by
Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600.[4] After a rival English company challenged its monopoly in
the late 17th century, the two companies were merged in 1708 to form the United Company of
Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, commonly styled the Honourable East India
Company,[5] and abbreviated, HEIC;[6] the Company was colloquially referred to as John
Company,[7] and in India as Company Bahadur (Hindustani bahādur, "brave"/"authority").[8]

The East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpetre, tea, and, into China,
illegal opium. The Company also came to rule large swathes of India, exercising military power
and assuming administrative functions, to the exclusion, gradually, of its commercial pursuits.
Company rule in India, which effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey, lasted until
1858, when, following the events of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and under the Government of
India Act 1858, the British Crown assumed direct administration of India in the new British Raj.
The Company itself was finally dissolved on 1 January 1874, as a result of the East India Stock
Dividend Redemption Act.

The Company long held a privileged position in relation to the English, and later the British,
government. As a result, it was frequently granted special rights and privileges, including trade
monopolies and exemptions. These caused resentment among its competitors, who saw unfair
advantage in the Company's position. Despite this resentment, the Company remained a
powerful force for over 200 years.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Foundation
 2 Foothold in India
 3 Expansion
 4 Forming a complete monopoly
o 4.1 Trade monopoly
o 4.2 Saltpetre trade
 5 Basis for the monopoly
o 5.1 Colonial monopoly
o 5.2 Military expansion
 o 5.3 Opium trade
 6 Regulation of the company's affairs
o 6.1 Financial troubles
o 6.2 Regulating Acts of Parliament
 6.2.1 East India Company Act 1773
 6.2.2 East India Company Act (Pitt's India Act) 1784
 6.2.3 Act of 1786
 6.2.4 Charter Act 1813
 6.2.5 Charter Act 1833
 6.2.6 Charter Act 1853
 7 Indian Mutiny of 1857–58
 8 Legacy
 9 East India Club
 10 Flags
 11 Ships
 12 Records
 13 See also
 14 Sources
 15 References
 16 External links

[edit] Foundation
Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, a group of London merchants presented a
petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean.[9] The permission was
granted and in 1591 three ships sailed from England around the Cape of Good Hope to the
Arabian Sea. One of them, the Edward Bonaventure, then sailed around Cape Comorin and on to
the Malay Peninsula and subsequently returned to England in 1594.[9] In 1596, three more ships
sailed east; however, these were all lost at sea.[9] Two years later, on 24 September 1598, another
group of merchants, having raised £30,133 in capital, met in London to form a corporation.
Although their first attempt was not completely successful, they nonetheless sought the Queen's
unofficial approval, purchased ships for their venture, increased their capital to £68,373, and
convened again a year later.[9] This time they succeeded, and on 31 December 1600, the Queen
granted a Royal Charter to "George, Earl of Cumberland, and 215 Knights, Aldermen, and
Burgesses" under the name, Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the
East Indies.[10] The charter awarded the newly formed company, for a period of fifteen years, a
monopoly of trade (known today as a patent[citation needed]) with all countries to the east of the Cape
of Good Hope and to the west of the Straits of Magellan.[10] Sir James Lancaster commanded the
first East India Company voyage in 1601.[11]

Initially, the Company struggled in the spice trade due to the competition from the already well
established Dutch East India Company. The Company opened a factory (trading post) in Bantam
on the first voyage and imports of pepper from Java were an important part of the Company's
trade for twenty years. The factory in Bantam was closed in 1683. During this time ships
belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat, which was established as a trade
transit point in 1608. In the next two years, the Company built its first factory in the town of
Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The high profits reported by the
Company after landing in India initially prompted King James I to grant subsidiary licenses to
other trading companies in England. But in 1609 he renewed the charter given to the Company
for an indefinite period, including a clause which specified that the charter would cease to be in
force if the trade turned unprofitable for three consecutive years.

The Company was led by one Governor and 24 directors who made up the Court of Directors.
They were appointed by, and reported to, the Court of Proprietors. The Court of Directors had
ten committees reporting to it.

[edit] Foothold in India

English traders frequently engaged in hostilities with their Dutch and Portuguese counterparts in
the Indian Ocean. The Company achieved a major victory over the Portuguese in the Battle of
Swally in 1612. The Company decided to explore the feasibility of gaining a territorial foothold
in mainland India, with official sanction of both countries, and requested that the Crown launch a
diplomatic mission. In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe was instructed by James I to visit the Mughal
Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir (r. 1605 - 1627) to arrange for a commercial treaty which
would give the Company exclusive rights to reside and build factories in Surat and other areas.
In return, the Company offered to provide the Emperor with goods and rarities from the
European market. This mission was highly successful as Jahangir sent a letter to James through
Sir Thomas Roe:[12]

Upon which assurance of your royal love I have given my general command to all the kingdoms
and ports of my dominions to receive all the merchants of the English nation as the subjects of
my friend; that in what place soever they choose to live, they may have free liberty without any
restraint; and at what port soever they shall arrive, that neither Portugal nor any other shall dare
to molest their quiet; and in what city soever they shall have residence, I have commanded all my
governors and captains to give them freedom answerable to their own desires; to sell, buy, and to
transport into their country at their pleasure.

For confirmation of our love and friendship, I desire your Majesty to command your merchants
to bring in their ships of all sorts of rarities and rich goods fit for my palace; and that you be
pleased to send me your royal letters by every opportunity, that I may rejoice in your health and
prosperous affairs; that our friendship may be interchanged and eternal.

[edit] Expansion
This section requires expansion.

The Company, benefiting from the imperial patronage, soon expanded its commercial trading
operations, eclipsing the Portuguese Estado da India, which had established bases in Goa,
Chittagong and Bombay (which was later ceded to England as part of the dowry of Catherine de
Braganza). The Company created trading posts in Surat (where a factory was built in 1612),
Madras (1639), Bombay (1668), and Calcutta (1690). By 1647, the Company had 23 factories,
each under the command of a factor or master merchant and governor if so chosen, and had 90
employees in India. The major factories became the walled forts of Fort William in Bengal, Fort
St George in Madras, and the Bombay Castle.

In 1634, the Mughal emperor extended his hospitality to the English traders to the region of
Bengal, and in 1717 completely waived customs duties for the trade. The company's mainstay
businesses were by then in cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpetre and tea. All the while in 1650-56, it
was making inroads into the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade in the Malaccan straits, which
the Dutch had acquired by ousting the Portuguese in 1640-41. In 1657, Oliver Cromwell
renewed the charter of 1609, and brought about minor changes in the holding of the Company.
The status of the Company was further enhanced by the restoration of monarchy in England. By
a series of five acts around 1670, King Charles II provisioned it with the rights to autonomous
territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops and form alliances, to
make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the acquired areas.
[13]
In 1711, the Company established a trading post in Canton (Guangzhou), China, to trade tea
for silver.

[edit] Forming a complete monopoly

[edit] Trade monopoly

This section needs additional citations for verification.

Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and
removed. (May 2008)

The prosperity that the officers of the company enjoyed allowed them to return to their country
and establish sprawling estates and businesses, and to obtain political power. The Company
developed a lobby in the English parliament. Under pressure from ambitious tradesmen and
former associates of the Company (pejoratively termed Interlopers by the Company), who
wanted to establish private trading firms in India, a deregulating act was passed in 1694. This
allowed any English firm to trade with India, unless specifically prohibited by act of parliament,
thereby annulling the charter that was in force for almost 100 years. By an act that was passed in
1698, a new "parallel" East India Company (officially titled the English Company Trading to the
East Indies) was floated under a state-backed indemnity of £2 million. The powerful
stockholders of the old company quickly subscribed a sum of £315,000 in the new concern, and
dominated the new body. The two companies wrestled with each other for some time, both in
England and in India, for a dominant share of the trade. It quickly became evident that, in
practice, the original Company faced scarcely any measurable competition. The companies
merged in 1708, by a tripartite indenture involving both companies and the state. Under this
arrangement, the merged company lent to the Treasury a sum of £3,200,000, in return for
exclusive privileges for the next three years, after which the situation was to be reviewed. The
amalgamated company became the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the
East Indies.[14]
In the following decades there was a constant see-saw battle between the Company lobby and the
Parliament. The Company sought a permanent establishment, while the Parliament would not
willingly allow it greater autonomy and so relinquish the opportunity to exploit the Company's
profits. In 1712, another act renewed the status of the Company, though the debts were repaid.
By 1720, 15% of British imports were from India, almost all passing through the Company,
which reasserted the influence of the Company lobby. The license was prolonged until 1766 by
yet another act in 1730.

At this time, Britain and France became bitter rivals. Frequent skirmishes between them took
place for control of colonial possessions. In 1742, fearing the monetary consequences of a war,
the British government agreed to extend the deadline for the licensed exclusive trade by the
Company in India until 1783, in return for a further loan of £1 million. Between 1756 and 1763,
the Seven Years' War diverted the state's attention towards consolidation and defence of its
territorial possessions in Europe and its colonies in North America. The war took place on Indian
soil, between the Company troops and the French forces. In 1757, the Law Officers of the Crown
delivered the Pratt-Yorke opinion distinguishing overseas territories acquired by right of
conquest from those acquired by private treaty. The opinion asserted that, while the Crown of
Great Britain enjoyed sovereignty over both, only the property of the former was vested in the
Crown.[15]

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, Britain surged ahead of its European rivals.
Demand for Indian commodities was boosted by the need to sustain the troops and the economy
during the war, and by the increased availability of raw materials and efficient methods of
production. As home to the revolution, Britain experienced higher standards of living. Its
spiralling cycle of prosperity, demand, and production had a profound influence on overseas
trade. The Company became the single largest player in the British global market. It reserved for
itself an unassailable position in the decision-making process of the Government.

William Pyne notes in his book The Microcosm of London (1808) that

"On the 1 March 1801, the debts of the East India Company to £5,393,989 their effects to
£15,404,736 and their sales increased since February 1793, from £4,988,300 to
£7,602,041."

[edit] Saltpetre trade

Sir John Banks, a businessman from Kent who negotiated an agreement between the King and
the Company, began his career in a syndicate arranging contracts for victualling the navy, an
interest he kept up for most of his life. He knew Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn and founded a
substantial fortune from the Levant and Indian trades. He became a Director and later, as
Governor of the East Indian Company in 1672, he arranged a contract which included a loan of
£20,000 and £30,000 worth of saltpetre for the King 'at the price it shall sell by the candle'[citation
needed]
- that is by auction - where an inch of candle burned and as long as it was alight bidding
could continue. The agreement included with the price 'an allowance of interest which is to be
expressed in tallies.'[citation needed] This was something of a breakthrough in royal prerogative
because previous requests for the King to buy at the Company's auctions had been turned down
as 'not honourable or decent.'[citation needed] Outstanding debts were also agreed and the Company
permitted to export 250 tons of saltpetre. Again in 1673, Banks successfully negotiated another
contract for 700 tons of saltpetre at £37,000 between the King and the Company. So urgent was
the need to supply the armed forces in the United Kingdom, America, and elsewhere that the
authorities sometimes turned a blind eye on the untaxed sales. One governor of the Company
was even reported as saying in 1864 that he would rather have the saltpetre made than the tax on
salt.[16]

[edit] Basis for the monopoly

[edit] Colonial monopoly

Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, became the first British Governor of Bengal.
Further information: Great Britain in the Seven Years War

The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) resulted in the defeat of the French forces, limited French
imperial ambitions, and stunting the influence of the industrial revolution in French territories.
Robert Clive, the Governor General, led the Company to a victory against Joseph François
Dupleix, the commander of the French forces in India, and recaptured Fort St George from the
French. The Company took this respite to seize Manila[17] in 1762. By the Treaty of Paris (1763),
the French were allowed to maintain their trade posts only in small enclaves in Pondicherry,
Mahe, Karikal, Yanam, and Chandernagar without any military presence. Although these small
outposts remained French possessions for the next two hundred years, French ambitions on
Indian territories were effectively laid to rest, thus eliminating a major source of economic
competition for the Company. In contrast, the Company, fresh from a colossal victory, and with
the backing of a disciplined and experienced army, was able to assert its interests in the Carnatic
region from its base at Madras and in Bengal from Calcutta, without facing any further obstacles
from other colonial powers.[citation needed]

[edit] Military expansion

Main article: Company rule in India

The Company continued to experience resistance from local rulers during its expansion. Robert
Clive led company forces against Siraj Ud Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, Bihar,
and Midnapore district in Orissa to victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, resulting in the
conquest of Bengal. This victory estranged the British and the Mughals, since Siraj Ud Daulah
was a Mughal feudatory ally. But the Mughal empire was already on the wane after the demise
of Aurangzeb, and was breaking up into pieces and enclaves. After the Battle of Buxar, Shah
Alam II, the ruling emperor, gave up the administrative rights over Bengal, Bihar, and
Midnapore District. Clive became the first British Governor of Bengal.

Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, the rulers of the Kingdom of Mysore, offered much resistance to the
British forces. Having sided with the French during the war, the rulers of Mysore continued their
struggle against the Company with the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. Mysore finally fell to the
Company forces in 1799, with the death of Tipu Sultan.

With the gradual weakening of the Maratha empire in the aftermath of the three Anglo-Maratha
wars, the British also secured Bombay (Mumbai) and the surrounding areas. It was during these
campaigns, both against Mysore and the Marathas, that Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of
Wellington, first showed the abilities which would lead to victory in the Peninsular War and at
the Battle of Waterloo. A particularly notable engagement involving forces under his command
was the Battle of Assaye (1803). Thus, the British had secured the entire region of Southern
India (with the exception of small enclaves of French and local rulers), Western India and
Eastern India.

The last vestiges of local administration were restricted to the northern regions of Delhi, Oudh,
Rajputana, and Punjab, where the Company's presence was ever increasing amidst infighting and
offers of protection among the remaining princes. Coercive action, threats, and diplomacy aided
the Company in preventing the local rulers from putting up a united struggle. The hundred years
from the Battle of Plassey in 1757 to the Indian Rebellion of 1857 were a period of consolidation
for the Company, which began to function more as a nation and less as a trading concern.

A cholera pandemic began in Bengal, then spread across India by 1820. 10,000 British troops
and countless Indians died during this pandemic.[18] Between 1736 and 1834 only some 10% of
East India Company's officers survived to take the final voyage home.[19]

[edit] Opium trade

Main article: Opium Wars

In the eighteenth century, Britain had a huge trade deficit with Qing Dynasty China and so in
1773, the Company created a British monopoly on opium buying in Bengal. As the opium trade
was illegal in China, Company ships could not carry opium to China. So the opium produced in
Bengal was sold in Calcutta on condition that it be sent to China.[20]

Despite the Chinese ban on opium imports, reaffirmed in 1799, it was smuggled into China from
Bengal by traffickers and agency houses (such as Jardine, Matheson and Company, Ltd.) in
amounts averaging 900 tons a year. The proceeds from drug-runners at Lintin Island were paid
into the Company's factory at Canton and by 1825, most of the money needed to buy tea in
China was raised by the illegal opium trade. In 1838, with opium smuggling approaching 1,400
tons a year, the Chinese imposed a death penalty on opium smuggling and sent a new governor,
Lin Zexu, to curb smuggling. This resulted in the First Opium War (1839–1842). The British
seized Hong Kong and opened the Chinese market to British drug traffickers.

[edit] Regulation of the company's affairs

Monopolistic activity by the company triggered the Boston Tea Party.

[edit] Financial troubles

Though the Company was becoming increasingly bold and ambitious in putting down resisting
states, it was getting clearer that the Company was incapable of governing the vast expanse of
the captured territories. The Bengal famine of 1770, in which one-third of the local population
died, set the alarm bells ringing back home. Military and administrative costs mounted beyond
control in British administered regions in Bengal due to the ensuing drop in labour productivity.
At the same time, there was commercial stagnation and trade depression throughout Europe. The
directors of the company attempted to avert bankruptcy by appealing to Parliament for financial
help. This led to the passing of the Tea Act in 1773, which gave the Company greater autonomy
in running its trade in America, and allowed it an exemption from the tea tax which its colonial
competitors were required to pay. When the American colonists, who included tea merchants,
were told of the act, they tried to boycott it, claiming that, although the price had gone down on
the tea when enforcing the act, it was a tax all the same, and the king should not have the right to
just have a tax for no apparent reason. The arrival of tax-exempt Company tea, undercutting the
local merchants, triggered the Boston Tea Party in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, one of the
major events leading up to the American Revolution.

[edit] Regulating Acts of Parliament

[edit] East India Company Act 1773

By the East India Company Act 1773 (13 Geo. III, c. 63), the Parliament of Great Britain
imposed a series of administrative and economic reforms and by doing so clearly established its
sovereignty and ultimate control over the Company. The Act recognised the Company's political
functions and clearly established that the "acquisition of sovereignty by the subjects of the
Crown is on behalf of the Crown and not in its own right."
Despite stiff resistance from the East India lobby in parliament and from the Company's
shareholders the Act was passed. It introduced substantial governmental control and allowed the
land to be formally under the control of the Crown, but leased to the Company at £40,000 for
two years. Under this provision governor of Bengal Warren Hastings became the first Governor-
General of India, and had administrative powers over all of British India. It provided that his
nomination, though made by a court of directors, should in future be subject to the approval of a
Council of Four appointed by the Crown - namely Lt. General Sir John Clavering, The
Honourable Sir George Monson, Sir Richard Barwell, and Sir Philip Francis. Hastings was
entrusted with the power of peace and war. British judicial personnel would also be sent to India
to administer the British legal system. The Governor General and the council would have
complete legislative powers. The company was allowed to maintain its virtual monopoly over
trade in exchange for the biennial sum and was obligated to export a minimum quantity of goods
yearly to Britain. The costs of administration were to be met by the company. These provisions
were initially welcomed by the Company, but with the annual burden of the payment to be met,
its finances continued steadily to decline.[21]

[edit] East India Company Act (Pitt's India Act) 1784

The India Act of 1784 (24 Geo. III, s. 2, c. 25) had two key aspects:

 Relationship to the British government: the bill differentiated the East India Company's
political functions from its commercial activities. In political matters the East India
Company was subordinated to the British government directly. To accomplish this, the
Act created a Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, usually referred to as the
Board of Control. The members of the Board were the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
Secretary of State, and four Privy Councillors, nominated by the King. The act specified
that the Secretary of State "shall preside at, and be President of the said Board".
 Internal Administration of British India: the bill laid the foundation for the centralised
and bureaucratic British administration of India which would reach its peak at the
beginning of the twentieth century during the governor-generalship of George Nathaniel
Curzon, 1st Baron Curzon.

The expanded East India House, Leadenhall Street, London, as rebuilt 1799-1800, Richard Jupp,
architect (as seen c. 1817; demolished in 1929)
Pitt's Act was deemed a failure because it quickly became apparent that the boundaries between
government control and the company's powers were nebulous and highly subjective. The
government felt obliged to respond to humanitarian calls for better treatment of local peoples in
British-occupied territories. Edmund Burke, a former East India Company shareholder and
diplomat, was moved to address the situation and introduced a new Regulating Bill in 1783. The
bill was defeated amid lobbying by company loyalists and accusations of nepotism in the bill's
recommendations for the appointment of councillors.

[edit] Act of 1786

The Act of 1786 (26 Geo. III c. 16) enacted the demand of Lord Cornwallis that the powers of
the Governor-General be enlarged to empower him, in special cases, to override the majority of
his Council and act on his own special responsibility. The Act enabled the offices of the
Governor-General and the Commander-in-Chief to be jointly held by the same official.

This Act clearly demarcated borders between the Crown and the Company. After this point, the
Company functioned as a regularised subsidiary of the Crown, with greater accountability for its
actions and reached a stable stage of expansion and consolidation. Having temporarily achieved
a state of truce with the Crown, the Company continued to expand its influence to nearby
territories through threats and coercive actions. By the middle of the 19th century, the
Company's rule extended across most of India, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and
a fifth of the world's population was under its trading influence.

[edit] Charter Act 1813

The aggressive policies of Lord Wellesley and the Marquis of Hastings led to the Company
gaining control of all India, except for the Punjab, Sindh, and Nepal. The Indian Princes had
become vassals of the Company. But the expense of wars leading to the total control of India
strained the Company's finances. The Company was forced to petition Parliament for assistance.
This was the background to the Charter Act of 1813 (53 Geo. III c. 155) which, among other
things:

 asserted the sovereignty of the British Crown over the Indian territories held by the
Company;
 renewed the charter of the company for a further twenty years, but
o deprived the company of its Indian trade monopoly except for trade in tea and the
trade with China
o required the company to maintain separate and distinct its commercial and
territorial accounts
 opened India to missionaries

[edit] Charter Act 1833

The Industrial Revolution in Britain, the consequent search for markets, and the rise of laissez-
faire economic ideology form the background to this act. The Act:
  removed the Company's remaining trade monopolies and divested it of all its commercial
functions
 renewed for another twenty years the Company's political and administrative authority
 invested the Board of Control with full power and authority over the Company. As stated
by Professor Sri Ram Sharma,[22] "The President of the Board of Control now became
Minister for Indian Affairs."
 carried further the ongoing process of administrative centralisation through investing the
Governor-General in Council with, full power and authority to superintend and, control
the Presidency Governments in all civil and military matters
 initiated a machinery for the codification of laws
 provided that no Indian subject of the Company would be debarred from holding any
office under the Company by reason of his religion, place of birth, descent or colour
 vested the Island of St Helena in the Crown

British influence continued to expand; in 1845, the Danish colony of Tranquebar was sold to
Great Britain. The Company had at various stages extended its influence to China, the
Philippines, and Java. It had solved its critical lack of cash needed to buy tea by exporting
Indian-grown opium to China. China's efforts to end the trade led to the First Opium War (1839–
1842).

[edit] Charter Act 1853

This Act provided that British India would remain under the administration of the Company in
trust for the Crown until Parliament should decide otherwise.

[edit] Indian Mutiny of 1857–58

Main article: Indian Rebellion of 1857

The Indian Rebellion of 1857, known to the British as the "Great Mutiny", but to Indians as the
"First War of Independence", resulted in widespread devastation in India and condemnation of
the Company for permitting the events to occur.[citation needed] One of the consequences was that the
British government nationalised the Company. The Company lost all its administrative powers;
its Indian possessions, including its armed forces, were taken over by the Crown pursuant to the
provisions of the Government of India Act 1858.

The Company continued to manage the tea trade on behalf of the British government (and the
supply of Saint Helena) until the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act came into effect, on
1 January 1874, under the terms of which the Company was dissolved.[23] The trading name of
the company continued to exist, owned by the British Government Treasury.[24] In 1974, the
company was reestablished by a group of private investors, focusing on tea and coffee retail.[25]
In 2010, the company was purchased by Sanjiv Mehta, an Indian-born British businessman.[26]

[edit] Legacy
The East India Company has had a long lasting impact on the Indian Subcontinent. Although
dissolved following the rebellion of 1857, it stimulated the growth of the British Empire. Its
armies after 1857 were to become the armies of British India and it played a key role in
introducing English as an official language in India.

[edit] East India Club

The East India Club in London was formed in 1849 for officers of the East India Company. The
Club still exists today as a private Gentlemen's Club with its club house situated at 16, St.
James's Square, London.

[edit] Flags

Downman (1685) Lens (1700) Rees (1820) Laurie (1842)

Prior to the Acts of Union

which created the The flag had a Union After 1801 the flag
Kingdom of Great Flag in the canton after contained the Union Flag
Britain, the flag contained the creation of the of the United Kingdom of
the St George's Cross in Kingdom of Great Great Britain and Ireland
the canton representing Britain in 1707 in the canton (1810)
National the Kingdom of England
Geographic (1917)

The East India Company flag changed over time. From the period of 1600 to the 1707 Act of
Union between England and Scotland]] the flag consisted of a St George's cross in the canton
and a number of alternating Red and White stripes. After 1707 the canton contained the original
Union Flag consisting of a combined St George's cross and a St Andrew's cross. After the Act of
Union 1800 that joined Ireland into the United Kingdom, the canton of the East India Company's
flag was altered accordingly to include the new Union Flag with the additional Saint Patrick's
Flag. There has been much debate and discussion regarding the number of stripes on the flag and
the order of the stripes. Historical documents and paintings show many variations from 9 to 13
stripes, with some images showing the top stripe being red and others showing the top stripe
being white.

At the time of the American Revolution the East India Company flag was identical to the Grand
Union Flag. The flag probably inspired the Stars and Stripes (as argued by Sir Charles Fawcett in
1937).[27]
[edit] Ships
Ships of the East India Company were called East Indiamen.[28] Some examples:

 Red Dragon (1595)

 Earl of Abergavenny b(1797)
 Royal Captain (before 1773)
 Agamemnon (1855)
 Kent (1825): Lost on her maiden voyage

[edit] Records
Unlike all other British Government records, the records from the East India Company (and its
successor the India Office) are not in The National Archives at Kew, London, but are stored by
the British Library in London as part of the Asia, Pacific, and Africa Collection. The catalogue is
searchable online in the Access to Archives catalogues.[29] Many of the East India Company
records are freely available online under an agreement that the Families of the British India
Society (FIBIS) have with the British Library.