How the British East India Company went bankrupt

The East India Company, sometimes referred to as the John Company, was a joint-stock company. 

On December 31, 1600, Queen Elizabeth I of England granted the company a royal charter, giving it the privilege of trading in India. In effect, the charter granted a monopoly on East India trade for 21 years. 

Over time, the East India Company went from being a commercial trading enterprise to becoming the de facto ruler of India. Until it was relieved of executive power in 1858, it also acquired an auxiliary ruling and military function. 

The following is an account of the history of the East India Company: 

The British colonies spread all over the world, so it was called the "Empire of the Sun", which means that the sun could be seen 24 hours a day in areas ruled by the British. Britain is strong, strong and developed. It is inseparable from the brutal plundering of colonies around the world. The establishment and development of the "East India Company" is a good illustration of this problem. 

The East India Company was founded in 1600. Initially, the British mainly used the East India Company for business, and gradually the East India Company became a tool for the British colonizers to invade India. In 1613, the British established a trading post in Sutra, western India, and soon after, a trading post was established in Madras, southeastern India. In 1698, the East India Company bought Calcutta, located at the mouth of the Ganges River in the Bay of Bengal, from the Mughal *** of India. Kolkata's small village is a small village with a lot of rice and jute, rivers and plains stretching as far as the eye can see. The East India Company set up its trading headquarters here and made a huge profit from the continuous shipment of Indian grain and industrial raw materials back to England. 

As the East India Company grew stronger, it gradually occupied Madras, Kolkata, and the aforementioned city of Mumbai. They set up three districts here, each with a provincial governor, and turned them into bases for further encroachment on the rest of India. 

The British plundered India and caused dissatisfaction among the Indian people, so the British East India Company, in order to invade other regions more smoothly, built a huge fort in Calcutta, which was filled with heavily armed British soldiers, and these British troops also actively trained the Indians to help them fight. 

The East India Company, which was supposed to do business, had already made the Indian people very dissatisfied with the economic plunder, and at this time, they built up an army, and India *** intervened as a matter of course. 

In 1756, the Nawab of Bengal (equivalent to the Governor-General) proposed to the East India Company *** asking them to demolish the fort in Calcutta, but the British ignored it, and the Nawab was very angry and sent troops to drive out the British and take back Calcutta. This began the famous Anglo-Indian "Seven Years' War" in history. 

At this time, because Britain granted the East India Company various powers, such as the right to monopolize trade, the right to train troops, the right to declare war and peace, and the right to set up courts to try the inhabitants of the country or colonies, etc., it can be seen that the East India Company actually became an agent of the British invasion of India. 

Therefore, when the Indians regained Calcutta, the commander-in-chief of the East India Company, Klevu, hurriedly summoned officials to Madras to discuss countermeasures. 

"How can the British Empire tolerate such an insult, let's do it!" an officer in military uniform suggested to Klevu. 

"Wait! I think it's important to be well prepared before making a decision. A *** official said. 

"What? The natives have bullied us, what else do we have to prepare? The army of the British Empire is invincible, and there is nothing to prepare. The soldier squinted at the speaker with his eyes and said dissatisfiedly. 

"Commander," *** The officer did not seem to hear the words of the soldiers, and continued to Clevau slowly, "Please listen to my reasons, first, the Nawab's strength is 70,000, and we have only 900 men, plus the Indian soldiers we have trained, it is only 2,900 hundred, once the battle starts, it is not difficult to judge the victory or defeat. Second, we are far from home, and after the war starts, I am afraid that the supply of materials will be very problematic, and it will take more than two months for ships from England to arrive here. Thirdly, the Indians also have the support of the French. These three points are for the commander's consideration. ” 

After hearing this, Clevau glanced at the soldier, who was glaring at the *** officer. Clevau looked at the *** officer again, who had sat down silently. With a sly smile, Clevu said to everyone: 

"Guys, both of them have a good opinion, I have decided to go to war with India, but ......" With that, he walked over to the *** official and whispered something to him. 

The next day, *** officers with several retinues gave many precious gifts to the leading officers of the Nawab. It turned out that they were bribing subordinate officers of the Nawab! 

In January 1757, Klevau landed at the mouth of the Ganges River and reoccupied Calcutta after a short period of fierce fighting. In June, Nawab sent 70,000 troops to fight against Clevau's 900 British troops in the Prasay area. The British soldiers were already frightened in the face of the powerful Indian army, and they lost the first battle. However, they bribed many Indian officers with a large amount of money and jewelry, causing the Indian army to retreat, at which time the British quickly pursued, the Indian army scattered and fled, and even the Nawab was killed by the British army. 

The British army took advantage of the situation to march on the Bangladesh treasury and opened the gates of the treasury. When they saw a treasury full of gold, silver, and jewelry. 

"Grab it!" the British army suddenly rushed to all corners of the treasury like water that had opened the floodgates. 

The treasury was empty, but the British soldiers returned with a full load. 

A few years later, when he told Parliament about the robbery, he regretted it: "I was a fool at the time, I was surrounded by gold and silver jewelry, boxes and boxes of gold bars, bags and bags of precious stones. But I only took 200,000 pounds!" 

According to incomplete statistics, the Bangladesh treasury was robbed, and the total value of gold, silver and jewelry taken by the British army amounted to 37 million pounds, not including the total value of 21 million pounds that were personally stolen by the employees of the East India Company. The total value of these two items alone amounts to £58 million. 

After this battle, the British defeated the French army, and from then on, they occupied Bengal alone, and appointed the pro-British Indians as the Nawab. 

In 1767, the British Parliament passed the "East India Company Management Act", which stipulated that the former governor of Calcutta was changed to a governor-general, and was directly appointed by the state, whose task was to administer all the territories of India under British occupation on behalf of the British. At this point, the British *** began to rule India directly. 

Later, the British continued to occupy the rest of India, in 1774, they occupied Ode, and in 1799, after 23 years of war, the British occupied Mysore, a powerful feudal state in southern India. In 1849, it occupied Punjab in northwestern India. From then on, the British completely occupied India, and the whole of India became a British colony. 

Why, then, was the East India Company able to devour India step by step and firmly control it? 

It can be said that the secret of British rule in India lies in the words "divide and rule", India is a large country in South Asia, and the British Empire has ruled India since the early 16th century. On the surface, India is a huge unified empire, but in reality, India has never achieved unity. Not only did the feudal kingdoms fight each other, but even the central government was full of contradictions, and at the same time, it was constantly invaded by foreign forces. Therefore, the national strength is very weak. Coupled with the traditional caste system, the contradictions between all strata of society are very acute. In this case, the British smoothly broke into India. After the British colonialists occupied India, they made full use of various contradictions in India to let "Indians fight Indians" and reap the benefits. For example, at the end of the 18th century, the East India Company instigated the Hindu feudal princes to attack Mysore, and then instigated the princes of Hyderabad to attack Marat, and provoked relations between the princes of Marat, causing extreme chaos, the East India Company came forward to clean up the mess and then establish its colonial rule. 

The East India Company also trained mercenaries, ostensibly owned by the feudal princes of India, but because they were "protected" by the East India Company, they were in the service of the British. It was commanded by European officers and played an extremely important role in the British occupation of India, and it can be said that without this mercenary force, the British would not have been able to conquer India. 

In addition to the above-mentioned looting of the Bengal treasury, the East India Company plundered the capital of Mysore in 1799 and plundered 15 million pounds worth of royal treasures. 

Another means of plunder by the British in India through the East India Company was their monopoly on the opium, salt, and tobacco trade. Of these, opium revenues account for about one-seventh of the company's total revenue. They forced Bangladeshi farmers to grow opium and smuggle it to China for huge profits. 

Due to the brutal plundering and oppression of the Indian people by the East India Company, the Indian people suffered endless disasters, and the Great Bengal Famine of 1770 alone, 10 million people starved to death, accounting for one-third of the population of Bengal. 

From the 60s of the 18th century, the East India Company began to decline, and in 1767, the company could not afford to pay the 400,000 pounds stipulated by the British ***, and began to borrow from ***, and the financial crisis became more and more serious. In 1813, the East India Company's trade monopoly on India was abolished, and in 1833, the British *** abolished its trade monopoly on China. In this way, the East India Company had to go down the road of bankruptcy. 

The bankruptcy of the East India Company was not accidental, and there were three reasons for this: first, the corruption and smuggling of the company's employees led to a sharp decline in the company's total income. Secondly, due to the company's expropriation of the Indian people, the Indian people continued to revolt. And for the company to suppress the uprising, it would have to spend a lot of money. This creates a vicious circle that traps the company in a series of crises. Thirdly, the East India Company was the representative of commercial monopoly capital, while industrial capital grew rapidly in England, and commercial capital gradually lost its former position. This is also the main reason for the collapse of the company. 

In 1858, the East India Company was officially abolished by the British, and the British began to rule India directly. The East India Company was like an old man who had been kicked away after he had exhausted his life amassing enough wealth for the British.