Group

East India Company, British (United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies)

Company Defunct 1708 CE – 1757 CE Capital London Middlesex United Kingdom

The prosperity that the officers of the East India Company enjoys has allowed them to return to Britain and establish sprawling estates and businesses, and to obtain political power.

The company develops a lobby in the English parliament.

Under pressure from ambitious tradesmen and former associates of the company (pejoratively termed Interlopers by the company), who want to establish private trading firms in India, a deregulating act had been passed in 1694.

This had allowed any English firm to trade with India, unless specifically prohibited by act of parliament, thereby annulling the charter that had been in force for almost one hundred years.

By an act that was passed 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.

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 wrestle with each other for some time, both in England and in India, for a dominant share of the trade.

It had quickly become evident that, in practice, the original company faced scarcely any measurable competition.

The companies merge in 1708, by a tripartite indenture involving both companies and the state.

Under this arrangement, the merged company lends to the Treasury a sum of £3,200,000, in return for exclusive privileges for the next three years, after which the situation is to be reviewed.

The amalgamated company becomes the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies

Company interests turn from trade to territory during the eighteenth century as the Mughal Empire declines in power and the East India Company struggles with its French counterpart, the French East India Company (Compagnie française des Indes orientales) during the Carnatic Wars of the 1740s and 1750s.

The Battle of Plassey and Battle of Buxar, in which the British, led by Robert Clive, defeat the Indian powers, leaves the company in control of Bengal and a major military and political power in India.

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Moran, J. (n.d.). East India Company, British (United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies). History Atlas. Retrieved 18 September 2026, from https://www.historyatlas.com/groups/east-india-company-british-united-company-of-merchants-of-england-trading-to-the-east-indies/

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