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Essay on British East India Company
The British East India Company was the main source of trade between the east and Britain for more that 200 years. I chose to do my research paper on the British east India Company. The British east India Company was the most important of the various East India companies; this company was a major force in the history of India for more than 200 years. Queen Elizabeth I granted the original charter on December 31, 1600, under the title of "The Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies.
The company was granted a monopoly of trade in the East Indies, with the formal restriction that it might not contest the prior trading rights of "any Christian prince."The East India Company had the unusual distinction of ruling an entire country. Its origins were much humbler. On 31 December 1600, a group of merchants who had incorporated themselves into the East India Company were given monopoly privileges on all trade with the East Indies. The Company's ships first arrived in India, at the port of Surat, in 1608. Sir Thomas Roe reached the court of the Mughal Emperor, Jahangir, as the emissary of King James I in 1615, and gained for the British the right to establish a factory at Surat. Gradually the British eclipsed the Portugese and over the years they saw a massive expansion of their trading operations in India.
Numerous trading posts were established along the east and west coasts of India, and considerable English communities developed around the three presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. In 1717, the Company achieved its hitherto most notable success when it received a firman or royal dictat from the Mughal Emperor exempting the Company from the payment of custom duties......
