The British East India Company

1.

                The British East India Company was a politically and economically powerful organization that made its profit from trading goods worldwide. It was founded in 1600 to partake in the spice trade with East India, and expanded over the years to trade a wide variety of goods from many different countries. Cotton, tea, and opium were three of the plants that had a huge impact on the business and success of the company.

2.

                Cotton was one of the first large markets that the BEIC got involved in, becoming over 60% of the company’s trade by the 1680s. It was the growing demand for cotton in Europe that gave the BEIC the profits it needed to expand its business, which brought them to China, where they got involved in trading tea. Tea had become a very popular drink in Europe; however, China had control over the trade, as it was one of the few places tea was known to grow. China would only accept silver as payment, so the BEIC put a high tax on tea being sold back in Europe. These taxes helped the company maintain their power

3.

                Acquiring large amounts of silver had become quite expensive for the BEIC, so they began to look for other forms of payments to the Chinese. The company had access to a lot of opium, so they began trading it for silver, where it was then smuggled into China. Chinese opposition to these illegal opium exports eventually led to the Opium Wars in 1839-1842. The British victory in these wars allowed the East India Company to gain power and expand their operations even further.

Relevant Sites:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/176643/East-India-Company

http://web.utk.edu/~gerard/romanticpolitics/britisheastindia.html

Photo Citations:

1. http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/eastindia.jpg

2.­ http://www.commoditytrademantra.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/silver-2.jpg

3. http://philebersole.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/the-opium-war.jpg