Editing East India Company (section)

=== Forming a complete monopoly ===

==== Trade monopoly ====
The prosperity that the officers of the company enjoyed allowed them to return to Britain and establish sprawling estates and businesses, and to obtain political power, such as seats in the House of Commons.<ref name="Guha2016">{{Cite book |last=Guha |first=Sumit |title=Beyond Caste |publisher=Permanent Black |year=2016 |isbn=978-81-7824-513-3 |pages=215–216 |chapter=Empires, Nations, and the Politics of Ethnic Identity, c. 1800-2000}}</ref> Ship captains sold their appointments to successors for up to £500. As recruits aimed to return to Britain wealthy by securing Indian money, their loyalties to their homeland increased.<ref name="Guha2016" />

The company developed a [[lobbying|lobby]] in the English parliament. Pressure from ambitious tradesmen and former company associates (pejoratively termed ''Interlopers'' by the company), who wanted to establish private trading firms in India, led to the passing of the deregulating act in 1694.<ref name="victorianweb.org">{{cite web|url=http://victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/eic.html|title=The British East India Company – the Company that Owned a Nation (or Two)|website=victorianweb.org|access-date=31 May 2010|archive-date=19 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190319053723/http://victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/eic.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{anchor|East India Company Act 1697}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = East India Company Act 1697
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of England
| long_title            = An Act for raising a Sum not exceeding Two Millions upon a Fund for Payment of Annuities after the Rate of Eight Pounds per Cent. per Annum; and for settling the Trade to the East Indies.
| year                  = 1697
| citation              = [[9 Will. 3]]. c. 44
| introduced_commons    =
| introduced_lords      =
| territorial_extent    =
| royal_assent          = 5 July 1698
| commencement          =
| expiry_date           =
| repeal_date           =
| amends                =
| replaces              =
| amendments            = {{ubli|[[Statute Law Revision Act 1871]]|[[Statute Law Revision Act 1888]]}}
| repealing_legislation = [[Statute Law Revision Act 1892]]
| related_legislation   =
| status                = Repealed
| legislation_history   =
| theyworkforyou        =
| millbankhansard       =
| original_text         =
| revised_text          =
| use_new_UK-LEG        =
| UK-LEG_title          =
| collapsed             = yes
}}
This act allowed any English firm to trade with India, unless specifically prohibited by act of parliament, thereby annulling the charter that had been in force for almost 100 years. When the East India Company Act 1697 ([[9 Will. 3]]. c. 44) was passed in 1697, a new "parallel" East India Company (officially titled the ''English Company Trading to the East Indies'') was floated under a state-backed indemnity of £2&nbsp;million.<ref name="Boggart">{{cite journal |last1=Boggart |first1=Dan |editor1-last=Lamoreaux |editor1-first=Naomi R. |editor2-last=Wallis |editor2-first=John Joseph |title=East Indian Monopoly and Limited Access in England |journal=Organizations, Civil Society, and the Roots of Development |date=2017 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago}}</ref> The powerful stockholders of the old company quickly subscribed a sum of £315,000 in the new concern, and dominated the new body. The two companies wrestled with each other for some time, both in England and in India, for a dominant share of the trade.<ref name="victorianweb.org" />

It quickly became evident that, in practice, the original company faced scarcely any measurable competition. The companies merged in 1708, by a tripartite indenture involving both companies and the state, with the charter and agreement for the new ''United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies'' being awarded by [[Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3t0TAAAAQAAJ|title=Charters Relating to the East India Company from 1600 to 1761: Reprinted from a Former Collection with Some Additions and a Preface for the Government of Madras|last1=East India Company |last2=Shaw|first2=John|date=1887|publisher=R. Hill at the Government Press|page=217|language=en|access-date=21 August 2018|archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727135340/https://books.google.com/books?id=3t0TAAAAQAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> Under this arrangement, the merged company lent a sum of £3,200,000 to the Treasury, in return for exclusive privileges for the next three years, after which the situation was to be reviewed. The amalgamated company became the ''United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies''.<ref name="victorianweb.org" />

{{anchor|East India Company Act 1711}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = East India Company Act 1711
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of Great Britain
| long_title            = An Act for continuing the Trade and Corporation-capacity of the United East India Company, although their Fund should be redeemed.
| year                  = 1711
| citation              = [[10 Ann.]] c. 35{{br}}Ruffhead c. 28
| introduced_commons    =
| introduced_lords      =
| territorial_extent    =
| royal_assent          = 21 June 1712
| commencement          =
| expiry_date           =
| repeal_date           = 15 July 1867
| amends                =
| replaces              =
| amendments            =
| repealing_legislation = [[Statute Law Revision Act 1867]]
| related_legislation   =
| status                = Repealed
| legislation_history   =
| theyworkforyou        =
| millbankhansard       =
| original_text         =
| revised_text          =
| use_new_UK-LEG        =
| UK-LEG_title          =
| collapsed             = yes
}}

A constant battle between the company lobby and Parliament followed for decades. The company sought a permanent establishment, while Parliament would not willingly allow it greater autonomy and so relinquish the opportunity to exploit the company's profits. In 1712, another act renewed the status of the company, though the debts were repaid. By 1720, 15% of British imports were from India, almost all passing through the company, which reasserted the influence of the company lobby. The licence was prolonged until 1766 by yet another act in 1730.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

At this time, Britain and France became bitter rivals. Frequent skirmishes between them took place for control of colonial possessions. In 1742, fearing the monetary consequences of a war, the British government agreed to extend the deadline for the licensed exclusive trade by the company in India until 1783, in return for a further loan of £1&nbsp;million. Between 1756 and 1763, the [[Seven Years' War]] diverted the state's attention towards consolidation and [[French and Indian War|defence of its territorial possessions]] in Europe and its [[English colonization of the Americas|colonies in North America]].<ref name="oxforddnb.com">Thomas, P. D. G. (2008) "[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22699 Pratt, Charles, first Earl Camden (1714–1794)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923123001/https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-22699;jsessionid=282A5AF578D9E89BB7B4A0973166B5F2 |date=23 September 2021 }}", ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Oxford University Press, online edn. Retrieved 15 February 2008 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

The war partly took place in the Indian theatre, between the company troops and the French forces. In 1757, the [[Law Officers of the Crown]] delivered the [[Pratt–Yorke opinion]] distinguishing overseas territories acquired by [[right of conquest]] from those acquired by private [[treaty]]. The opinion asserted that, while the Crown of Great Britain enjoyed sovereignty over both, only the property of the former was vested in the Crown.<ref name="oxforddnb.com" />

With the advent of the [[Industrial Revolution]], Britain surged ahead of its European rivals. Demand for Indian commodities was boosted by the need to sustain troops and the economy during the war, and by the increased availability of raw materials and efficient methods of production. As home to the revolution, Britain experienced higher standards of living. Its ever-growing cycle of prosperity, demand and production had a profound influence on overseas trade. The company became the single largest player in the British global market. In 1801 [[Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville|Henry Dundas]] reported to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] that

{{blockquote|... on the&nbsp;1st March, 1801, the debts of the East India Company amounted to 5,393,989''[[Pound sterling|l.]]'' their effects to 15,404,736''l.'' and that their sales had increased since February 1793, from 4,988,300''l.'' to 7,602,041''l.''<ref>{{cite book |first=William Henry |last=Pyne |author-link=William Henry Pyne |title=The Microcosm of London, or London in Miniature |location=London |publisher=Methuen |volume=2 |year=1904 |orig-year=1808 |page=[https://archive.org/details/microcosmoflondo02pyneuoft/page/159 159] |url=https://archive.org/details/microcosmoflondo02pyneuoft }}</ref>}}

<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:Rear view of the East India Company's Factory at Cossimbazar.jpg|Rear view of the East India Company's [[Factory (trading post)|factory]] at [[Cossimbazar]]
File:Portrait of East India Company official.jpg|[[Company painting]] depicting an official of the East India Company, c. 1760
</gallery>

==== Saltpetre trade ====
[[File:Potassium nitrate.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Potassium nitrate|Saltpetre]] used for [[gunpowder]] was one of the major trade goods of the company]]

Sir [[Sir John Banks, 1st Baronet|John Banks]], a businessman from [[Kent]] who negotiated an agreement between the king and the company, began his career in a syndicate arranging contracts for [[Victualling Commissioners|victualling the navy]], an interest he kept up for most of his life. He knew that [[Samuel Pepys]] and [[John Evelyn]] had amassed a substantial fortune from the [[Levant]] and Indian trades.

He became a director and later, as governor of the East India Company in 1672, he arranged a contract which included a loan of £20,000 and £30,000 worth of [[Potassium nitrate|saltpetre]]—also known as potassium nitrate, a primary ingredient in [[gunpowder]]—for the King "at the price it shall [[Candle auction|sell by the candle]]"—that is by auction—where bidding could continue as long as an inch-long candle remained alight.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Janssens|first1=Koen|title=Annales Du 17e Congrès D'Associationi Internationale Pour L'histoire Du Verre|publisher=Asp / Vubpress / Upa|isbn=978-90-5487-618-2|page=366|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ir6UHACu7zMC&pg=PA366|year=2009|access-date=19 August 2016|archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727140752/https://books.google.com/books?id=ir6UHACu7zMC&pg=PA366|url-status=live}}</ref>

Outstanding debts were also agreed and the company permitted to export 250 tons of saltpetre. Again in 1673, Banks successfully negotiated another contract for 700 tons of saltpetre at £37,000 between the king and the company. So high was the demand from armed forces that the authorities sometimes turned a blind eye on the untaxed sales. One governor of the company was even reported as saying in 1864 that he would rather have the saltpetre made than the tax on salt.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://salt.org.il/frame_saltpet.html|title=SALTPETER the secret salt – Salt made the world go round|publisher=salt.org.il|access-date=7 July 2017|archive-date=6 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706161200/http://salt.org.il/frame_saltpet.html|url-status=live}}</ref>