The East India Company

Founded in sixteen hundred the East India Company trades goods from England with India. The company pays local rulers in India for permission to open trading centres in Surat, Bombay, Calicut, Madras and Calcutta. The goods they bring back from India include saltpetre used in the manufacture of gunpowder, and indigo dye as well as silk and cotton, the cotton being woven into cheap cloth that we then sell back to India. The East India Company has its own army to act as guards. It also has it’s own military academy, most of its private soldiers are local Indian men, trained to European standards and led by British officers. France also has trade interests in India which has led to hostilities, with the French being defeated by Clive of India at the battle for Calcutta and then the decisive battle of Plessey. This was part of what we called the seven years war, after which the East India Company, with the help of its powerful army, has increased its power in India and been able to place India entirely under British Rule. India is known as the jewel in the crown.