   #copyright

British East India Company

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History
1500-1750; Companies

   The BEIC, sometimes referred to as "John Company", was a joint-stock
   company which was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth I on
   December 31, 1600, with the intention of favouring trade privileges in
   India. The Royal Charter effectively gave the newly created Honourable
   East India Company (HEIC) a 21 year monopoly on all trade in the East
   Indies. The Company transformed from a commercial trading venture to
   one which virtually ruled India as it acquired auxiliary governmental
   and military functions, until its dissolution in 1858.
   The company's flag initially had flag of England, the St. George's
   Cross in the corner
   Enlarge
   The company's flag initially had flag of England, the St. George's
   Cross in the corner
   The flag had a Union Flag in the canton after the creation of the
   Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707
   Enlarge
   The flag had a Union Flag in the canton after the creation of the
   Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707
   Post 1801 the flag contains the Union Flag of the United Kingdom of
   Great Britain and Ireland in the canton
   Enlarge
   Post 1801 the flag contains the Union Flag of the United Kingdom of
   Great Britain and Ireland in the canton

Impact

   Based in London, the company presided over the creation of the British
   Raj. In 1617, the Company was given trade rights by the Mughal Emperor.
   100 years later, it was granted a royal dictate from the Emperor
   exempting the Company from the payment of custom duties in Bengal,
   giving it a decided commercial advantage in the Indian trade. A
   decisive victory by Sir Robert Clive at the Battle of Plassey in 1757
   established the British East India Company as a military as well as a
   commercial power. By 1760, the French were driven out of India, with
   the exception of a few trading posts on the coast, such as Pondicherry.

   The Company also had interests along the routes to India from Great
   Britain. As early as 1620, the company attempted to lay claim to the
   Table Mountain region in South Africa, later it occupied and ruled St
   Helena. The Company also established Hong Kong and Singapore; employed
   Captain Kidd to combat piracy; and cultivated the production of tea in
   India. Other notable events in the Company's history were that it held
   Napoleon captive on St Helena, and made the fortune of Elihu Yale. Its
   products were the basis of the Boston Tea Party in Colonial America.

   Its shipyards provided the model for St Petersburg, elements of its
   administration survive in the Indian bureaucracy, and its corporate
   structure was the most successful early example of a joint stock
   company. However, the demands of Company officers on the treasury of
   Bengal contributed tragically to the province's incapacity in the face
   of a famine which killed millions in 1770-1773.

History

   British and other European settlements in India
   Enlarge
   British and other European settlements in India

The foundation years

   The Company was founded as The Company of Merchants of London Trading
   into the East Indies by a coterie of enterprising and influential
   businessmen, who obtained the Crown's charter for exclusive permission
   to trade in the East Indies for a period of fifteen years. The Company
   had 125 shareholders, and a capital of £72,000. Initially, however, it
   made little impression on the Dutch control of the spice trade and at
   first it could not establish a lasting outpost in the East Indies.
   Eventually, ships belonging to the company arrived in India, docking at
   Surat, which was established as a trade transit point in 1608. In the
   next two years, it managed to build its first factory (as the trading
   posts were known) in the town of Machilipatnam in the Coromandel Coast
   in the Bay of Bengal. The high profits reported by the Company after
   landing in India (presumably owing to a reduction in overhead costs
   effected by the transit points), 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.

Original organization structure

   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.

Footholds in India

   Traders were frequently engaged in hostilities with their Dutch and
   Portuguese counterparts in the Indian Ocean. A key event providing the
   Company with the favour of Mughal emperor Jahangir was their victory
   over the Portuguese in the Battle of Swally in 1612. Perhaps realizing
   the futility of waging trade wars in remote seas, the English decided
   to explore their options for gaining a foothold in mainland India, with
   official sanction of both countries, and requested the Crown to launch
   a diplomatic mission. In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe was instructed by James I
   to visit the Mughal emperor Jahangir (who ruled over most of the
   subcontinent, along with Afghanistan). The purpose of this mission was
   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 to the emperor goods
   and rarities from the European market. This mission was highly
   successful and Jahangir sent a letter to the King through Sir Thomas
   Roe. He wrote:

          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.

Expansion

   The company, under such obvious patronage, soon managed to eclipse the
   Portuguese, who had established their bases in Goa and Bombay (which
   was later ceded to England as part of the dowry of Catherine de
   Braganza). It managed to create strongholds in Surat (where a factory
   was built in 1612), Madras (1639), Bombay (1668) and Calcutta (1690).
   By 1647, the Company had 23 factories and 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 now in cotton, silk, indigo,
   saltpeter and tea. All the while, it was making inroads into the Dutch
   monopoly of the spice trade in the Malaccan straits. In 1711, the
   Company established a trading post in Canton (Guangzhou), China, to
   trade tea for silver. 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. The Company, surrounded
   by trading competitors, other imperial powers, and sometimes hostile
   native rulers, experienced a growing need for protection. The freedom
   to manage its military affairs thus came as a welcome boon and the
   Company rapidly raised its own armed forces in the 1680s, mainly drawn
   from the indigenous local population. By 1689, the Company was arguably
   a "nation" in the Indian mainland, independently administering the vast
   presidencies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay and possessing a formidable
   and intimidating military strength. From 1698 the company was entitled
   to use the motto "Auspico Regis et Senatus Angliae" meaning, "Under the
   patronage of the King and Parliament of England".

The road to a complete monopoly

Trade monopoly

   The prosperity that the employees of the company enjoyed allowed them
   to return to their country and establish sprawling estates and
   businesses and obtain political power. Consequently, the Company
   developed for itself a lobby in the English parliament. However, 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 act 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 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. However, 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. But it quickly became evident, that in practice, the original
   Company scarcely faced any measurable competition. Both companies
   finally merged in 1702, by a tripartite indenture involving the state
   and the two companies. 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.

   What followed in the next decades 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 relinquish the
   opportunity to exploit the Company's profits by allowing it a greater
   autonomy. 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, and there were
   frequent skirmishes between them for control of colonial possessions.
   In 1742, fearing the monetary consequences of a war, the 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. The skirmishes did escalate to the feared war, and 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 also took place on
   Indian soil, between the Company troops and the French forces. Around
   the same time, Britain surged ahead of its European rivals with the
   advent of the Industrial Revolution. 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, and this 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,
   and 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 1st March, 1801, the debts of the East India Company
          amounted 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.

Saltpetre (used to make gunpowder) 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 Pepys and John Evelyn and founded a
   substantial fortune from the Levant and Indian trades. He also became a
   Director and later, as Governor of the East Indian Company in 1672, he
   was able to arrange 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' - that is by auction - where an inch of candle burned and
   as long as it was alight bidding could continue. The agreement also
   included with the price 'an allowance of interest which is to be
   expressed in tallies.' 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.'
   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.

   The British East India Company developed a triangular commerce among
   China, India and Britain that enabled the English to drink tea and
   water silk.

The basis for the monopoly

Opium trade

   In the eighteenth century, opium was highly sought after by the
   Chinese, and so in 1773, the Company assumed the monopoly of opium
   trading in Bengal. Company ships were not allowed officially to carry
   opium to China. So the opium produced in Bengal was sold in Calcutta on
   condition that it be sent to China .

   Despite the official Chinese ban on opium imports, reaffirmed in 1799,
   it was smuggled into China from Bengal by traders and agency houses
   averaging 900 tons a year. The proceeds from drug-runners at Lintin
   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 opium trade. In
   1838, the Chinese imposed a death penalty on opium smuggling which was
   then close to 1400 tons a year, and sent a new governor, Lin Zexu to
   curb smuggling. This finally resulted in the Opium War of 1840,
   eventually leading to the British seizing Hong Kong.

Colonial monopoly

   Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, became the first British Governor of
   Bengal.
   Enlarge
   Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, became the first British Governor of
   Bengal.

   The Seven Years' War (1756 – 1763) resulted in the defeat of the French
   forces and limited French imperial ambitions, also stunting the
   influence of the industrial revolution in French territories. Robert
   Clive, the Governor General, led the Company to an astounding 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 in 1762. By the Treaty of Paris (1763),
   the French were forced 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 from its base at Madras and in Bengal from Calcutta,
   without facing any further obstacles from other colonial powers.

Local resistance

   However, the Company continued to experience resistance from local
   rulers. Robert Clive led company forces against French-backed Siraj Ud
   Daulah to victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, thereby snuffing
   out the last known resistances in Bengal. This victory estranged the
   British and the Mughals, who had been served by Siraj as an autonomous
   ruler. 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, the ruling emperor, gave up the
   administrative rights over Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. Clive thus became
   the first British Governor of Bengal. Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, the
   legendary rulers of Mysore (in Carnatic), also gave a tough time 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 slaying 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 and the surrounding areas. It was during
   these campaigns, both of Mysore and of 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. 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 the infighting and dubious offers
   of protection against each other. Coercive action, threats and
   diplomacy aided the Company in preventing the local rulers from putting
   up a united struggle against it. The hundred years from the Battle of
   Plassey in 1757 to the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 were a period of
   consolidation for the Company, which began to function more as a nation
   and less as a trading concern.

Regulation of the company's affairs

   Monopolistic activity by the company triggered the Boston Tea Party.
   Enlarge
   Monopolistic activity by the company triggered the Boston Tea Party.

Financial troubles

   Though the Company was becoming increasingly bold and ambitious in
   putting down resisting states, it was getting clearer day by day that
   the Company was incapable of governing the vast expanse of the captured
   territories. The Bengal famine, in which one-sixth 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 following the lull in the post-Industrial Revolution
   period. Britain became entangled in the rebellion in America (one of
   the major importers of Indian tea), and France was on the brink of a
   revolution. The desperate 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. Its monopolistic activities
   triggered the Boston Tea Party in the Province of Massachusetts Bay,
   one of the major events leading up to the American War for
   Independence.

Regulating Acts

East India Company Act 1773

   By this Act (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 recognized 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, the governor of Bengal Warren
   Hastings was promoted to the rank of Governor General, having
   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 John Clavering, George Monson, Richard Barwell and
   Philip Francis. He 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. Thus, Warren Hastings became the
   first Governor-General of India. The company was allowed to maintain
   its virtual monopoly over trade, in exchange for the biennial sum and
   an obligation to export a minimum quantity of goods yearly to Britain.
   The costs of administration were also to be met by the company. These
   provisions, initially welcomed by the Company, backfired. The Company
   had an annual burden on its back, and its finances continued steadily
   to decline.

East India Company Act (Pitt's India Act) 1784

   This Act (24 Geo. III, s. 2, c. 25) had two key aspects:
     * Relationship to the British Government - the Bill clearly
       differentiated the political functions of the East India Company
       from its commercial activities. For its political transactions, the
       Act directly subordinated the East India Company to the British
       Government. 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 of Control were the
       Chancellor of the Exchequer, a 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 of the British centralized bureaucratic administration
       of India which would reach its peak at the beginning of the
       twentieth century with 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)
   Enlarge
   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 was immediately apparent
   that the boundaries between governmental control and the Company's
   powers were obscure and highly subject to interpretation. The
   government also felt obliged to answer humanitarian voices pleading for
   better treatment of natives in British occupied territories. Edmund
   Burke, a former East India Company shareholder and diplomat, felt
   compelled to relieve the situation and introduced before parliament a
   new Regulating Bill in 1783. The Bill was defeated due to intense
   lobbying by Company loyalists and accusations of nepotism in the Bill's
   recommendations for the appointment of councillors.

Act of 1786

   This Act (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 also 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 regularized 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.

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,
   Sind 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 to the breaking point. 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 Company for a further twenty years but,
          + deprived the Company of its Indian trade monopoly except for
            trade in tea and the trade with China;
          + required the Company to maintain separate and distinct its
            commercial and territorial accounts; and,
     * opened India to missionaries.

Charter Act 1833

   The Industrial Revolution in Britain, and the consequent search for
   markets, and the rise of laissez-faire economic ideology form the
   background to this act.

   The Act:
     * divested the Company of 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 Kapur ‘Professor Sri Ram Sharma, thus,
       summed up the point: "The President of the Board of Control now
       became Minister for Indian Affairs".

     * carried further the ongoing process of administrative
       centralization 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. However, this remained
       a dead letter well into the 20th century.

   Meanwhile, 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 the 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 with Britain.

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.

The end

   The efforts of the company in administering India emerged as a model
   for the civil service system in Britain, especially during the 19th
   century. Deprived of its trade monopoly in 1813, the company wound up
   as a trading enterprise. In 1858, the Company lost its administrative
   functions to the British government following the 1857 uprising which
   began with the Company's Indian soldiers called the Sepoy Mutiny or
   Indian Rebellion of 1857. India then became a formal crown colony. In
   the early 1860s, all of the Company's Indian possessions were
   appropriated by the Crown. The Company was still managing the tea trade
   on behalf of the British government (and supplying Saint Helena). When
   the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act came into effect, the
   Company was dissolved on January 1, 1874. The Times reported, "It
   accomplished a work such as in the whole history of the human race no
   other company ever attempted and as such is ever likely to attempt in
   the years to come."

   In 1987, coffee merchants Tony Wild and David Hutton created a public
   limited company called "The East India Company" and in 1990 registered
   versions of the Company's coat of arms as a trademark, although the
   Patent Office noted 'Registration of this mark shall give no right to
   the exclusive use of the words "The East India Company"' . By December
   1996, this company had a website at www.theeastindiacompany.com. It
   sold St Helena coffee branded with the Company name and also produced a
   book on the history of the Company. This company has no legal
   continuity with the original Company, even though it claims on its
   website to have been founded in 1600.

East India Club

   On the eve of the demise of the East India Company, the East India Club
   in London was formed for current and former employees of the East India
   Company. The Club still exists today and its club house is situated at
   16 St. James's Square, London.

In popular culture

   Officials of the rapacious British East India Company appear as
   villains in Robert Lawson's children's book Captain Kidd's Cat (1956).
   They also appeared in the 2006 movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead
   Man's Chest, despite the film being set in the West Indies.

   They can also be seen in upcoming movie directed by Indian-Origin
   Munish Garg.

Flags

   Downman (1685)

                             Lens (1700)

                                        Rees (1820)

                                                   Laurie (1842)

   National Geographic (1917)

   The East India Company flag changed over time. From the period of 1600
   to 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 St
   Patrick's cross. 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
   would have been identical to the Grand Union Flag. The flag probably
   inspired the Stars and Stripes (as argued by Sir Charles Fawcett in
   1937). Comparisons between the Stars and Stripes and the Company's flag
   from historical records present some convincing arguments. The John
   Company flag dates back to the 1600s whereas the United States adopted
   the Stars and Stripes in 1777 .

Ships

   A ship of the East India Company can also be called an East Indiaman.
     * Earl of Abergavenny
     * Royal Captain

East India Company Records

   Unlike all other British Government records, the records from the East
   India Company (and its successor 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.
   Many of The East India Company Records are freely available online
   under an agreement that FIBIS have with the British Library.
   Retrieved from "
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_East_India_Company"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
