by Andre Sanchez

During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the English and the Dutch were in unofficial conflict over the spice trade with East Asia.  During the late 1500s, Dutch ships showed massive profits in bringing spices back to Europe in spite of losses through engagements with English and the indigenous population, and the Dutch East India Company was formed in March 1602.

However, the English had been importing spices since the twelfth century, and the London merchants were displeased by the actions of the Dutch. The English East India Company’s origins lay in a charter by Queen Elizabeth I relating to the “...Governor and Company of the Merchants of London, Trading into the East…” This was a long name for the company when it was inaugurated, and it became known simply as the English East India Company, commonly called ‘John Company’.

Elizabeth was prompted to this action after the contents of a captured Portuguese ship from East Asia was found with a fabulous cargo of cloth, ebony and spices, and she realized what the English were missing out on. 

The Royal Charter was granted on 31st December, 1600 giving the “Honourable East India Company” monopoly on all trade with the East Indies, as the Dutch also provided to their company in 1602. Conflict was inevitable. The first John Company fleet of five ships left for East Asia under the command of James with the aid of his navigator Captain John Davies who had served with the Dutch navy and was familiar with the area.

The British East India Company virtually ruled India until its end in 1858.  The Dutch were never able to break England’s hold on India, and the English were likewise with the Dutch East India Company’s hold on Indonesia.  The Dutch company had the advantage of autonomous control and the right to declare war and attack any ship that it felt was infringing on its perceived monopoly of the East Asia spice trade.

The British equivalent did not have this autonomy and an uneasy truce was formed in 1619 with the Dutch, which provided England with a third of the spice trade and the Dutch East India Company with the remainder.  Unfortunately this truce did not last, and 20 employees of the British East India Company were tortured and killed at the Amboyna Massacre of 1623.  From that day on the British and Dutch companies were effectively at war, though it was never recognized as such by the respective governments.

These encounters with not only the Dutch, but also the Portuguese and other competitors, necessitated the Company to take measures to form its own military departments, and with the existing developments in administration systems, the Company became in essence a powerful and significant imperial power in much the same way as the Dutch company was.

The Company’s success in defeating the Portuguese in India in 1612 meant that it won trading concessions that enabled them to trade in spices, indigo, saltpeter and fabrics from Southern India, and it also continued to extend its activities in East Asia and Southeast Asia, despite the Dutch influence there. It was British naval power that enabled them to control the waters around the southern coast of India and also into parts of eastern Asia.

Its early trading stations in India were at the coastal towns of Surat and Bombay (Mumbai) on the west coast and  Madras (Chennai) on the east coast.  Also at Calcutta (Kolkata) more inland to the east. This covered most of coastal west and east India.

Tea came into England in 1658, and the English East India Company began to import tea from India and China, and in fact set up a tea factory in China, funded through illegal imports of opium into China from Indian opium fields.   The Company kept the price of tea in England deliberately high to make the most of this new venture since tea imports from Holland were illegal. This continued till well into the eighteenth century.  The Company gave up some of its political power in exchange for the sole rights from the British Government to export tea to America.

This proved lucrative until the Boston Tea Party, and after the American Revolution the Company had little contact with America.  An interesting side-note is that after the Union of Parliaments in 1707 that created Britain, the now British East India Company changed its flag to a number of red and white horizontal stripes, with the Union Flag in the top left corner.  The American flag adopted in 1777 was practically identical, with stars in place of the Union Flag. Too much of a coincidence!

The John Company finally lost its monopoly of trade with the East in 1813 and after the Indian Mutiny of 1857 the Colonial Office took control of it.  The need for a strong self regulating company to deal with the tribulations of East Asia had disappeared, and the Company went out of existence in 1873.

During its best period, the English East India Company, AKA John Company, was the most effective company of its type in the world.  It ruled countries and territories much larger than the United Kingdom and created a large number of colonies without having to resort to the brutality of the Dutch, including Singapore that was purchased, rather than seized, from the ruler at the time.  Singapore is now one of the world’s largest ports for shipment of goods world wide.

The British East India Company, as it came to be known after the Union between England and Scotland, can hold its head high in the knowledge that it was the largest and longest running of the East India companies, and conducted its negotiations with the indigenous population properly and without the savagery of other nations.

A Profile of the British East India Company, AKA John Company was originally published at http://www.globallifenow.com