East India Company

The East India Company (EIC) Company Bahadur, or simply The Company.}} was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia), and later with East Asia. The company gained control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent and colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. At its peak, the company was the largest corporation in the world by various measures and had its own armed forces in the form of the company's three presidency armies, totalling about 260,000 soldiers, twice the size of the British army at the time.

Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies", the company rose to account for half of the world's trade during the mid-1700s and early 1800s, particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and later, opium. The company also initiated the beginnings of the British Empire in India.

The company eventually came to rule large areas of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company-ruled areas in India gradually expanded after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and by 1858 most of modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh was either ruled by the company or princely states closely tied to it by treaty. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India in the form of the new British Raj.

The company subsequently experienced recurring problems with its finances, despite frequent government intervention. The company was dissolved in 1874 under the terms of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act enacted one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless, and obsolete. The official government machinery of the British Raj had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies.

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41
by Woodfall, William
Published 1794
Printed by the reporter, and sold (price 28.) by J. Deebrett, Piccadilly; R. Faulder, Bond-Street; F. and G. Egerton, Whitehall; Mrs. Murray, B. and J. White, and T. Chapman, Fleet-Street; and J. Sewell, facing the Royal Exchange. Where may be had, A sketch of the debate on the same subject, of the 9th of October. The letter from William Devaynes, Esq, to Thomas Henchman, Esq. with Mr. Henchman's answer, on the subject of the East-India Company's shipping. The dissent, or protest, of Thomas Henchman and Randle Jackson, Esqrs, delivered into the Committee of Bye-Laws, with a sketch of the debate on the report of the committee. An account of the proceedings of the general court, held on Wednesday the 19th of March. The debate on the expediency of cultivaing sugar in the territories of the East-India Company; with the speeches of Randle Jackson and George Dellas, Esqrs. and all the other reports of debates that have taken place at the India-House, and been given by Mr. Woodfall
...East India Company...

43
Published 1788
Printed for J. Debrett, Piccadilly
...East India Company...

45
Published 1793
Printed by W. Woodfall, Salisbury Square; and sold by B. and J. White, Fleet-Street; J. Debrett, Piccadilly; & J. Richardson, Cornhill
...East India Company...

50
Published 1814
Printed by order of the general court for the information of the proprietors
...East India Company...

51
Published 1802
[s.n.]
...East India Company...

52
Published 1822
Printed by order of the Court of Proprietors of the East-India Company, by E. Cox and Son
...East India Company...

54
by Woodfall, William
Published 1801
Printed for the reporter
...East India Company...

60
Published 1802
Printed, by order of the Court of Directors, for the information of the proprietors
...East India Company...