Queen Elizabeth I granted a royal charter in 1600 to a group of London merchants, forming the English East India Company and giving it a monopoly over English trade with Asia. The company began as a trading venture focused on spices and textiles but gradually built fortified trading posts, or factories, along the Indian coast. Over the following two centuries it grew into a major political and military power on the Indian subcontinent.
Relevance to Trade History
One of the earliest and most consequential joint-stock trading companies, it pioneered corporate structures that financed and governed long-distance trade.
Read the full story in our article The Rise of Chartered Trading Companies.
Source: The National Archives (UK). See our Sources & Methodology page for how we select and verify references.