British East India Company

Commercial company (1600-1873) chartered by Queen Elizabeth I and given a monopoly of trade between England and the Far East. In the 18th century, the company became, in effect, the ruler of a large part of India, and a form of dual control by the company and a committee responsible to Parliament in London was introduced by Pitt's India Act 1784. The end of the monopoly of China trade came in 1834, and after the Indian Mutiny 1857-58 the crown took complete control of the government of British India. The India Act 1858 transferred all the company's powers to the British government.

The East India Company set up factories (trading posts) in Masulipatam on the east coast of India in 1611; on the west coast in Surat in 1612; and on the east coast in Madras (now Chennai) in 1639. Attempts to set up a factory on the Hooghly (one of the mouths of the Ganges) began in 1640, but were unsuccessful until 1690; the settlement later developed into the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata). By 1652 there were some 23 English factories in India. Bombay (now Mumbai) came to the British crown in 1662, and was granted to the East India Company for £10 a year in 1668. The British victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757 gave the company control of Bengal.