East India Company T-Shirt

The East India Company or more properly the Honourable East India Company was granted a Royal charter by Queen Elizabeth (the first) in 1600 and it wasn’t much later that things started to go wrong. The EIC was owned by wealthy merchants and aristocrats and, to a lesser degree, the British government who had very little control over their affairs. The EIC traded in everything that could be traded including, cotton, silk, salt, opium and tea making themselves and the Empire very rich along the way. It was the EIC who stole the first tea plants from China and introduced it to India in one of the greatest acts of corporate theft in history. The EIC ruled great chunks of India up until 1858, with their own company administrations and private armies. Thankfully there is no modern day equivalent (unless you count Amazon, Apple and perhaps Google.) HUZZAH!