In this episode, we are answering why the British government was in a position to be sending military force to China in 1839.
The short answer: the East India Company and trade with the East vital to British national security.
Founding of the East India Company and MonopolyFrancis Drake and other English adventurers discovered possibilities when they went out raiding the Spanish and Portuguese. In 1599, Queen Elizabeth ! granted a Royal Charter to the “Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies” for an exclusive monopoly on trade with the East.
Over the long decades, the EIC successfully lobbied to keep its monopoly. It was a crucial source of money for the British government, so the EIC was supported.
The symbiosis between the EIC and the British government is a prototype of modern government-corporate relations, such as we see today.
The Country TradeThe "country trade" was any trade past the Cape of Good Hope. The EIC had the monopoly on trade between East and West, but East-East? Fair game.
Fired EIC employees and EIC employees working side jobs started this. Later, other companies started up. As the EIC lost its mojo, it lost its monopoly and other companies took over as the guarantors of British trade around the world.
Book recommendation: The Honourable Company by John Keay. (Fantastic author about India in general!)
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