The English East India Company (EIC): Trade with India and Asia
The Mughal emperor Shah Alam hands a scroll to Robert Clive, the governor of Bengal, which transferred tax collecting rights in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to the East India Company. Illustration: Benjamin West (1738–1820)/British Library INTRODUCTION Founded in 1600, the English East India Company (EIC), like its Dutch equivalent the United Netherlands East India Company (VOC, from the Dutch initials) was an innovative new type of corporation. It was a model for the limited-liability, stockholder-owned and funded modern corporation. The EIC was an early prototype for the modern multinational corporation. Originally created as a company to develop profitable long-distance trade, it evolved into a political organization that controlled or dominated about two-thirds of the Indian subcontinent by the early 1800s. The EIC and the Navigation Acts were the starting points for England's naval dominance and colonial empire. The EIC can be seen as an early example of state capitalism. ...