East India Company

British East India Company

So, what exactly was the British East India Company? Originally, it was set up as a corporation by a royal charter issued by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600. The charter allowed a group of merchants from London to set up this corporation to travel to the East Indies in search of riches.

However, historian Philip Stern argues that it is misleading to view the East India Company as a purely economic organisation. After all, within a very short time of arriving in India, the EIC was performing many of the activities you would expect a state government to organise. Among them, the EIC:

• Created and administered laws
• Collected taxes
• Protected its employees and subjects
• Inflicted punishment
• Controlled territories where it regulated religious and cultural life
• Conducted diplomacy
• Was a colonial proprietor
• Waged war
• Made claims to rule over land and sea
• Commanded obedience from the people who lived under its rule.¹

Fig. 1 - Coat of Arms of the British East India Company.

For this reason, Stern argues that the East India Company should not be seen as a mere financial trading company. He argues instead that we should see the Company as:

East India Company: History

Let's take a look at the meteoric rise of this powerful Company-State from its inception to its time as ruler of most of India.

East India Company: Expansion

The story of the East India Company begins in 1600, when the company was formed by Queen Elizabeth I. From its very beginning, the company became financially wealthy and successful from its trading missions to India.

A turning point occurred in 1757, when the British were invited by an Indian named Mir Jafar to fight on his behalf against the ruler of Bengal. The British and Jafar's forces won a decisive victory at the Battle of Plassey, and Mir Jafar granted the East India Company a chunk of territory in return.

This was the start of the East India Company's territorial conquest of India. Between 1757 and 1818 the company conquered huge swathes of India, either through direct annexation or by 'alliances' with neighbouring provinces. Under these 'alliances', local rulers were forced to cede authority in exchange for the cultural benefit of still being 'seen' as the ruler. The following maps show the expansion of territory (shown in pink) ruled by the East India Company from 1765 to 1857.

Fig. 2 - Map Showing the Expansion of East India Company territory (shown in pink) from 1765 to 1805.

Fig. 3 - Map Showing the Expansion of the East India Company territories from 1837 to 1857 (shown in pink).

British East India Company: Timeline

Let's take a look at a timeline of the East India Company's existence.

East India Company: Slavery

The East India Company started shipping enslaved people from Africa to the East Indies soon after its establishment. Historian Robert Allen suggests that this occurred as soon as the 1620s. However, the first archival record of East India Company slavery is dated from 1684, when 250 enslaved people were transported from Africa to St Helena.

Most of the enslaved people that the East India Company transported originated from the island of Madagascar.

Historian Frenise A. Logan analyses the East India Company's use of enslaved people in its factories. He argues that the East India Company started transporting enslaved people to its pepper factory in Benkulen because they feared that too many Englishmen died in the climate of this area.³

What kind of tasks did enslaved people perform?

The enslaved people in the pepper factory of Benkulen were forced to carry out a range of different activities, these included:

1. Cleaning
2. Building the fortifications
3. Carrying pepper to the cook-rooms
4. Cutting and draining the swamp near the fort
5. Acting as soldiers for the fort.⁴

An average workday for an enslaved person in the pepper factory of Benkulen was twelve to fourteen hours. They were locked up each night, for fear that they would try to run away if this measure was not taken.⁵

Frenise A. Logun concludes that,

East India Company: Army

The East India Company had its own army of 260,000 soldiers, which was twice the size of Britain's standing army.

The army was split into three presidencies, based in three different regions of India:

1. Bengal Army
2. Madras Army
3. Bombay Army

Initially, only British and European soldiers served in the East India Company armies. However, from the mid-eighteenth century, the East India Company began employing Indian troops to form regiments in their forces. By 1844, 94% of the East India Company forces were Indian.⁷

Sepoys

Indian soldiers who fought under the East India Company were known as sepoys. They were dressed in the red military uniform of British soldiers and were commanded by European officers.

Sepoys were key actors in the Indian Uprising of 1857 which led to the disestablishment of the East India Company. Many sepoys were angry at being commanded to go to foreign regions, which they believed to pollute their caste. They were also afraid that there would be forced conversions to Christianity.

But the most offensive step came with the introduction of the Enfield rifle, for which sepoys had to bite open the cartridges to release the gunpowder into the rifle. Rumours began that the cartridges included tallow (made from beef) and lard (derived from pork) which would go against the Hindu and Muslim codes for purity around eating. It was this which provoked the sepoys into revolt, leading to the Rebellion of 1857.

Fig. 4 - Painting by Orlando Nori showing sepoys fleeing European soldiers during the 1857 Uprising.

East India Company: Value

On one hand, the East India Company was a powerful financial and governmental organisation that handled vast sums of money and people. In 1698, the East India Company granted the government of William III a loan of £2 million in exchange for commercial privileges - highlighting what a powerhouse of profit the Company had become.⁸ By 1833, the East India Company was ruling 500,000 square miles of territory with 93.7 million 'British' subjects who paid £22.7 million a year in tax to the company.⁹ One anonymous speaker in the British House of Parliament argued in 1825 that,

On the other hand, however, the East India Company's finances took a toll as it changed its focus from a commercial trading organisation to a territorial ruler. In 1801, the East India Company was over £5 million in debt, and critics began to wonder whether the Company's territorial gain had brought any financial benefit. By 1813, many in Britain believed that the East India Company was incapable of generating profits from its commerce in India any longer.¹¹

The Disestablishment of the East India Company

After the Indian uprising of 1857, the British government decided that the East India Company had far too much independent authority for its liking. The British government dissolved the East India Company. This hailed in the era of direct rule of India, known as the British Raj.