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British East India Company: Trade
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Having established favourable trading, legal and religious rights, the British East India Company didn't think that it was necessary to establish any more formal relations with the Omanis. There was no need to do so, the Omani's were happy to trade with the British and afford them many commercial advantages without the necessity of administrative cost or burden. This state of affairs was to remain in place until the end of the eighteenth century, when new strategic realities altered the balance of power in the region. The French had become the new competitors as Napoleon landed troops in Egypt and sought to challenge British commercial and political activities in the Indian sub-continent. This new threat meant that the British government (not the British East India Company) felt that it was necessary to firm up their relationship to Oman and its leaders. Two treaties were signed, one in 1798 and one in 1800.
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The British East India Company made its presence felt in India in the 17th century, during the height of power of the Mughal empire. Instead of selling their own goods, the British eventually found it more profitable to sell Indian goods in Europe. The early days were hard. There was competition from both other Europeans, as well as other trade routes (the Red Sea route through Egypt, the Persian Gulf Route through Iraq, and the Northern Caravan Route through Afghanistan, Persia and Turkey). Thus the early British Traders were in no position to dictate terms and trade concessions were hard won. However, eventually and with perseverance the Company slowly established trading bases wherever it could along either side of the lengthy Indian coastline.
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Such was the situation when the East India Company began its trading activities in the early 17th century. Initially, the British traders had come to India with hopes of selling Britain's most popular export item to Continental Europe - British Broadcloth, but were disappointed to find little demand for it. Instead, like their Portuguese counterparts, they found several Indian-made items they could sell quite profitably in their homeland. Competing with other European traders, and competing with several other trade routes to Europe (the Red Sea route through Egypt, the Persian Gulf Route through Iraq, and the Northern Caravan Route through Afghanistan, Persia and Turkey), the early British Traders were in no position to dictate terms. They had to seek concessions with a measure of humility and offer trade terms that offered at least some benefits to the local rulers and merchants. While Aurangzeb (who had, perhaps, seen the connection between growing European Trade concessions and falling revenues from the overland trade) attempted to limit and control the activities of the East India Company, not all Indian rulers had as many compunctions about making trade concessions. Besides, the East India Company was willing to persevere; fighting and cajoling for concessions, it built trading bases wherever it could along either side of the lengthy Indian coastline.
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When considering Tranquebar and the first Danish East India Company, one must be aware of a few important facts. First and foremost, that the first Danish company never was a business comparable in size to the British or Dutch companies. When Sanjay Subrahmanyam compares the Danish company of 1636 to a private portuguese mercantile enterprise, he has an excellent point [30]. At no time was the first Danish company able to dominate or monopolize trade in a region, the way that the portuguese, the Dutch and the British did. Too, the administration of company interests in Asia can, even in the most favourable interpretation, best be described as governed by chance.
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For most of the succeeding 60 years, the East India Company sank from view. No plaque marked the site where its headquarters had stood in the City of London for more than two centuries. It was regarded as something that could be consigned to the history books, its deeds to be squabbled over by academics and imperial romantics. But the onset of globalisation has revived interest in a company that could be seen as a pioneering force for world trade. Exhibitions at the British Library and the V&A, plus a string of popular histories, have sought to revive the reputation of the "Honourable East India Company". Its founders are now hailed as swashbuckling adventurers, its operations praised for pioneering the birth of modern consumerism and its glamorous executives profiled as multicultural "white moguls".
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Established on a cold New Year’s Eve in 1600, Britain’s East India Company is unarguably the mother of the modern corporation. In a career spanning almost three centuries, the Company bridged the mercantilist world of chartered monopolies and the industrial age of corporations accountable solely to shareholders. The Company’s establishment by royal charter, its monopoly of all trade between Britain and Asia and its semi-sovereign privileges to rule territories and raise armies certainly mark it out as a corporate institution from another time. Yet in its financing, structures of governance and business dynamics, the Company was undeniably modern. It may have referred to its staff as servants rather than executives, and communicated by quill pen rather than email, but the key features of the shareholder-owned corporation are there for all to see.
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