During the past 250-300 years Britain's trade with the rest of the world grew dramatically. One of the most important elements of this expansion, is that English merchants, had a great navy backing them up on their voyages. So along with the navy controlling newer lands, the merchants provided the Britain with raw material such as wool from Australia and cotton from America and India.
Much of the credit should however go to the merchants, who helped run the Chartered companies all over the world. These merchants along with opening new doors for English trade, helped England monopolies all the trade of its colonies which, because of no competition, let England place their prices as high as they wanted.
The Chartered Companies gained complete monopolies of the regions they controlled. So the Hudson Bay Company traded in Canada while the Baltic Company traded in Russia. But the most important and profit making company was the East India company that monopolized the Indian Tea, Chinese Silk, and Indian Spice markets.
English: British East India Company flag plate in ...
English: British East India Company flag. Image fr...
English: British East India Company flag drawing f...At its peak the East India Company was very powerful, and most of the present colonized India under the British throne, is because of the East India Company.
The 'British' East India Company was originally founded in 1600 by Queen Elizabeth I, to gain control of trade in the Eastern Hemisphere. Our original idea was to compete with the Dutch in the Indonesian Spice trade, however this idea was soon dropped after the Dutch barbarously massacred English traders at Amboina in 1623. The idea of the Indonesian Spice Trade was given up, and the English concentrated on the Indian Subcontinent, where it had already established a base in Surat during 1612.
After the East India company established a post at the city of Madras in 1640, the Company was allowed...