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History's Hinge - 'Ain Jalut

[Administration]

Though England began colonising in earlier centuries (e.g. Ireland and North America), the British Empire only began to appear after her unification with Scotland in the 18th century.

The means of expansion was her shipping and the impetus was trade. These same two factors applied equally to Holland and in empire building, these two nations are perhaps unique up until the 20th century and the birth of the American world economic empire.

The common pattern for empires, as established throughout history by the likes of Persia, Greece, Rome, the Mongols and Spain, is invasion and occupation. As a small, seafaring nation, this was never an option for Britain (nor Holland).

Unlike her continental neighbours such as Austria-Hungary, France, Germany and Italy, which used large armies to establish conventional empires of occupied nations, Britain sent forth her merchants by sea, who established exclusive trading zones which attracted more merchants and their attendants.

There was a second impetus for British expansion overseas: wars with her continetal neighbours, France especially.

British North America expanded enormously and immediately upon the defeat of France in the Seven Years' War, due in large part to the martial qualities of her American settlers. In India, it was Britain's Indian allies versus those of France and it was the growing strength of France in the South Pacific that caused Britain to settle New Zealand.

This thread will now explore in more detail how Pax Britannica came about.


Excerpt From Last Night At The Proms (Rule Britannia)

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An anachronous map of British and, prior to the Acts of Union 1707, English imperial possessions

The British Empire was the largest empire in history and for a substantial time was the foremost global power. It was a product of the European age of discovery, which began with the maritime explorations of the 15th century, that sparked the era of the European colonial empires.

By 1921, the British Empire held sway over a population of about 458 million people, approximately one-quarter of the world's population. It covered about 36.6 million km� (14.2 million square miles), about a quarter of Earth's total land area. As a result, its legacy is widespread, in legal and governmental systems, economic practice, militarily, educational systems, sports (such as cricket, rugby and football), and in the global spread of the English language. At the peak of its power, it was often said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" because its span across the globe ensured that the sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous colonies or subject nations.

During the five decades following World War II, most of the territories of the Empire became independent. Many went on to join the Commonwealth of Nations, a free association of independent states.

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Full-scale replica of an 18th century East India merchantman

The mechanism by which private investment was encouraged by the British government in overseas trade was the private joint-stock company. This was described in 1776 by Adam Smith in his An Inquiry into the Nature And Causes of the Wealth of Nations:

Book Five - Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth

CHAPTER I - Of the Expenses of the Sovereign or Commonwealth

PART 3 - Of the Expense of Public Works and Public Institutions

ARTICLE 1 - Of the Public Works and Institutions for facilitating the Commerce of the Society

Of the Public Works and Institutions which are necessary for facilitating particular Branches of Commerce.

- Joint stock companies, established by Royal Charter or by Act of Parliament, differ in several respects, not only from regulated companies, but from private copartneries.

- The trade of a joint stock company is always managed by a court of directors. This court, indeed, is frequently subject, in many respects, to the control of a general court of proprietors. But the greater part of those proprietors seldom pretend to understand anything of the business of the company, and when the spirit of faction happens not to prevail among them, give themselves no trouble about it, but receive contentedly such half-yearly or yearly dividend as the directors think proper to make to them. This total exemption from trouble and from risk, beyond a limited sum, encourages many people to become adventurers in joint stock companies, who would, upon no account, hazard their fortunes in any private copartnery. Such companies, therefore, commonly draw to themselves much greater stocks than any private copartnery can boast of. The trading stock of the South Sea Company, at one time, amounted to upwards of thirty-three millions eight hundred thousand pounds. The divided capital of the Bank of England amounts, at present, to ten millions seven hundred and eighty thousand pounds.

- The Royal African Company, the predecessors of the present African Company, had an exclusive privilege by charter, but as that charter had not been confirmed by Act of Parliament, the trade, in consequence of the Declaration of Rights, was, soon after the revolution, laid open to all his Majesty's subjects. The Hudson's Bay Company are, as to their legal rights, in the same situation as the Royal African Company. Their exclusive charter has not been confirmed by Act of Parliament. The South Sea Company, as long as they continued to be a trading company, had an exclusive privilege confirmed by Act of Parliament; as have likewise the present United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies.


Between the years of 1555 and 1889, about 20 Crown Charters were granted to trading companies. The most famous of these was, of course, the British East India Company.

Each of these companies was granted an almost sovereign power within it's jurisdiction. In particular they were allowed to treat with native rulers, form banks, own and distribute land, and raise their own police/military.

A Brief History of British Joint Stock Companies

The English started joint stock companies. The earliest recognized company was the The Virginia Company. The British East India Company, sometimes referred to as "John Company", was one of the more famous joint-stock companies. It was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, with the intention of favouring trade privileges in India. The Royal Charter effectively gave the newly created Honourable East India Company (HEIC) a 21-year monopoly on all trade in the East Indies. The Company transformed from a commercial trading venture to one that virtually ruled India as it acquired auxiliary governmental and military functions, until its dissolution in 1858.

During the period of colonialism, the joint stock company Europeans, initially the British, trading with the Near East for goods, pepper and calico for example, enjoyed spreading the risk of trade over multiple sea voyages. The joint stock company became a more viable financial structure than previous guilds or state regulated companies. The first joint-stock companies to be implemented in the Americas were The Virginia Company and The Plymouth Company.

Transferable shares often earned positive returns on equity, which is evidenced by investment in companies like the British East India Company, which used the financing model to manage trade in India. Joint stock companies paid out divisions, dividends, to their shareholders by dividing up the profits of the voyage in the proportion of shares held. Divisions were usually cash, but when working capital was low and it was detrimental to the survival of the company, divisions were either postponed or paid out in remaining cargo which could be sold by shareholders for profit in the market.

It also made it affordable to support early colonists in America. Jamestown, for instance, was financed by the Virginia Company. It is because of Joint stock companies that the colonization and settlement of America was made possible.

However, in general, incorporation was only possible by Royal charter or private act, and was limited owing to government's jealous protection of the privileges and advantages thereby granted. As a result, many businesses came to be operated as unincorporated associations with possibly thousands of members. Any consequent litigation had to be carried out in the joint names of all the members and was impossibly cumbersome.

In the UK, registration and incorporation of companies without specific legislation was introduced by the Joint Stock Companies Act 1844.

[Administration]

The areas of the Virginia Company founded and organized by Bartholomew Gosnold of Grundisburgh in Suffolk, England and granted an exclusive charter by James I to the London and Plymouth companies; also showing the overlapping (yellow) area granted to both companies.

London Company

The London Company (also called the Charter of the Virginia Company of London) was an English joint stock company established by royal charter by James I of England on 10 April 1606 with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America. It was one of two such companies, along with the Plymouth Company, that was granted an identical charter as part of the Virginia Company. The London Company was responsible for establishing the Jamestown Settlement, the first permanent English settlement in the present United States in 1607, and in the process of sending additional supplies, inadvertently settled the Somers Isles, alias Bermuda, the oldest-remaining English colony, in 1609.

The territory granted to the London Company included the coast of North America from 34th parallel (Cape Fear) north to the 41st parallel (in Long Island Sound), but being part of the Virginia Company and Colony, The London Company owned a large portion of Atlantic and Inland Canada. The company was permitted by its charter to establish a 100 mile square (26,000 km�) settlement within this area. The portion of the company's territory north of the 38th parallel was shared with the Plymouth Company, with the stipulation that neither company found a colony within 100 miles (160 km) of each other.

On 14 May 1607, the London Company established the Jamestown Settlement on the James River about 40 miles upstream from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay at Cape Henry. Later in 1607, the Plymouth Company established its Popham Colony in present day Maine, but it was abandoned after about a year. By 1609, the Plymouth Company had dissolved. As a result, the charter for the London Company was adjusted with a new grant that extended from "sea to sea" of the previously-shared area between the 34th and 40th parallel. It was amended in 1612 to include the new territory of Bermuda.

The London Company struggled financially for a number of years, with results improving after sweeter strains of tobacco than the native variety were cultivated and successfully exported from Virginia as a cash crop beginning in 1612. In 1624, the company lost its charter, and Virginia became a royal colony.


The 1609 grant to the Virginia Company of London "from sea to sea" is shown demarcated in red. The later grant to the Plymouth Council of New England is shown in green

Plymouth Company

The Plymouth Company (the Plymouth Adventurers, also called the Virginia Company of Plymouth or simply Virginia Bay Company) was an English joint stock company founded in 1606 by James I of England with the purpose of establishing settlements on the coast of North America.

It was one of two such companies, along with the London Company, chartered with such a purpose as part of the Virginia Company. The territory of the company was the coast of North America from the 38th parallel to the 45th parallel, but being part of the Virginia Company and Colony, The Plymouth Company owned a large portion of Atlantic and Inland Canada. The portion of company's area south of the 41st parallel overlapped that of the London Company, with the stipulation being that neither company could found a settlement within 100 miles of an existing settlement of the other company.

In 1607, the company established the Popham Colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in present-day Maine. The settlement was founded in the same year that the London Company had established the Jamestown Settlement, but unlike Jamestown, the Popham settlement was abandoned after only one year.

The company thus fell into disuse and in 1609, the Virginia Colony charter was reorganzied to grant the London Company exclusive rights to most of the previously shared territory along the coast.

In 1620, after years of disuse, the company was revived and reorganized as the Plymouth Council for New England.

[Administration]

1723 SSC Sixpence
The SSC (South Sea Company) coins were minted in 1723, after they discovered silver and shipped it back from Indonesia in 1722. The coins minted were Crowns, Half Crowns,Shillings and Sixpence.

SOUTH SEA BUBBLE, the name given to a series of financial projects which originated with the incorporation of the South Sea Company in 1711, and ended nine years later in general disaster.

The idea at the root of the parent scheme was that the state should sell certain trading monopolies to a company in return for a sum of money to be devoted to the reduction of the national debt, and in the form which it took in 1711 it possibly owes its existence to Daniel Defoe, who discussed it frequently with Edward Harley (1664-1735), brother of Robert Harley, earl of Oxford. In 1711 the South Sea Company was formed, and was granted a monopoly of the British trade with South America and the Pacific Islands, the riches of which were popularly regarded as illimitable. Its promoters, mainly wealthy merchants, took over nearly �,o,000,000 of the national debt, on which they were to receive interest at the rate of 6% in addition to �8000 a year for the expenses of arrangement. The �600,000 was secured on certain customs duties. The company prospered, and in 1713, when the Asiento treaty was signed with Spain, it received the lucrative monopoly of the slave trade with Spanish America. It was the special pride of the Tories, who regarded it as a rival to the Whig institution, the Bank of England. In 1716 it obtained further concessions under the new Asiento treaty, and in 1717 it advanced a further sum of �2,000,000 to the government, but its prospects were greatly darkened by the outbreak of war between England and Spain in 1718. Yet it continued to thrive, and early in 1718 the king became its governor.

Towards the end of 1719 the directors of the company put before the government, the head of which was Charles Spencer, 3rd earl of Sunderland, a more ambitious scheme. In return for further concessions the company offered to take over the whole of the national debt and to pay �3,00,000 for this privilege. At this time the amount of the debt was �51,300,000, the greater part of which consisted of terminable annuities, money lent to the state in return for a fixed income for life. The company would receive interest at the rate of 5% until 1727, when it would be reduced to 4%. The advantage which the government hoped to obtain from this bargain was obvious; it would rid itself of the unpopular and burdensome debt. The advantages hoped for by the company were much greater, although perhaps not equally obvious. The aim of the directors was to persuade the annuitants of the state to exchange their annuities for South Sea stock; the stock would be issued at a high premium and thus a large amount of annuities would be purchased and extinguished by the issue of a comparatively small amount of stock. Moreover, when this process had been carried out the company would still receive from the government a sum of something like �1,500,000 a year. Seriously alarmed at the proposals of the South Sea Company, the directors of the Bank of England offered the government �5,000,000 for the same privilege, but the company outbid them with an offer of �7,5 6 7, 000. This was accepted, the necessary act of parliament being passed in April 1720. It is interesting to note that one of the most sturdy opponents of the scheme was Sir Robert Walpole.

The year 1719, when the South Sea scheme was projected, was remarkably favourable to an undertaking of the kind. It was the year when France went delirious over John Law and his Mississippi Company, and the infection spread to England. But before April 1720, when everything was ready, a terrible reaction had begun in France, confidence and prosperity giving way to ruin and disaster. Nevertheless, the directors proceeded with their plan, and in a few weeks they had persuaded over one-half of the government annuitants to become shareholders in the company. Meanwhile the stock of the company had been appreciating steadily in value, and when the new scheme was launched the public began to purchase it more eagerly than before. From 1282 at the beginning of the year the price rose to 330 in March, and in April the directors sold two and a quarter millions of stock at 300. In May the price rose to 550, in June to 890, and in July it touched moo. At this tremendous premium the directors sold five millions of stock.

By this time the extraordinary success of the South Sea Company had produced a crowd of imitators, and the result was a wild mania of speculation, and its inevitable end - a crash. Hundreds of companies were formed, some of them being fortunate enough to secure the active support of royal and titled personages; thus the prince of Wales, afterwards George II., became governor of the Welsh Copper Company. Some of these new companies, like the Royal Exchange and the London Assurance, were perfectly legitimate and honourable undertakings, but the great majority put forward the most audacious and chimerical proposals for extracting money from the public. One was "for a wheel for perpetual motion"; another was for a "design which will hereafter be promulgated," and it has been estimated that the total capital asked for by the promoters of these schemes amounted to �300,000,000. Profiting by the sad experience of France, the British government made an attempt to check this movement, and an act was passed for this purpose early in '720. A proclamation of the 11th of June against the promoters of illegal companies followed, and the directors of the South Sea Company persuaded the lords justices, who were acting as regents during the absence of the king, to abolish 86 companies as illegal.

In August the fall in the price of South Sea stock began, and in September, just as the "insiders" had sold out, it became serious. Instead of being a buyer every one became a seller, and the result was that in a few days the stock of the South Sea Company fell to 175, while the stocks of many other companies were unsaleable. In November, South Sea stock fell to 135, and in four months the stock of the Bank of England fell from 263 to 145. Thousands were ruined, and many who were committed to heavy payments fled from the country. The popular cry was for speedy and severe vengeance, both on the members of the government and on the directors of the unfortunate company.

Parliament was called together on the 8th of December 1720, and at once both houses proceeded to investigate the affairs of the company, the lower house soon entrusting this to a committee of secrecy. To stem the tide of disaster Sir Robert Walpole proposed that the Bank of England and the East India Company should each take over nine millions of South Sea stock, but although this received the assent of parliament it never came into force. More to the liking of the people was the act of January 1721 which restrained the directors from leaving the kingdom and compelled them to declare the value of their estates. The committee of secrecy reported in February 1721, and it proved that there had been fraud and corruption on a large scale. The company's books contained entries which were entirely fictitious, and the favours which the directors had secured from the state had been purchased by gifts to ministers, some of whom had also made large sums of money by speculating in the stock. The chief persons implicated were John Aislabie (1670-1742), chancellor of the exchequer; James Craggs, joint postmaster-general; his son James Craggs, secretary of state; and to a lesser degree the earl of Sunderland and Charles Stanhope, a commissioner of the treasury. Aislabie, who was perhaps the most deeply implicated, resigned his office in January, and in March he was found guilty by the House of Commons of the "most notorious, dangerous and infamous corruption"; he was expelled from the house and was imprisoned. Both the elder and the younger Craggs died in March, while owing to the efforts of Walpole both Sunderland and Stanhope were acquitted, the latter by the narrow majority of three. By act of parliament the estates of the directors were confiscated; these were valued at �2,014,123, of which �354,600 was returned to them for their maintenance, the balance being devoted to the relief of the sufferers.

Under the guidance of Walpole parliament then proceeded to deal with the wreck. �11,000,000 had been lent by the directors of the South Sea Company on the security of their own stock, the debtors of the company including 138 members of the House of Commons. This debt was remitted on payment of 10% of the sum borrowed, this being afterwards reduced to 5%, and the �7,567,000 due from the company to the government was also remitted. More serious, perhaps, was the case of those persons who had exchanged the substance of a government annuity for the shadow of a dividend on South Sea stock. They asked that the state should again guarantee to them their incomes, but in the end they only received something like one-half of what they had enjoyed before the bubble.

The South Sea Company with a capital of nearly �40,000,000 continued to exist, but not to flourish. Various changes were made in the nature of its capital, and in 1750 it received �100,000 from the Spanish government for the surrender of certain rights. Its commercial history then ended, but its exclusive privileges were not taken away until 1807. In 1853 the existing South Sea annuities were either redeemed or converted into government stock. The London headquarters of the company were the South Sea House in Threadneedle Street.

- 1911 Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica

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The launch of the Honourable East India Company's ship 'Edinburgh'
(Repro ID: D2542 � National Maritime Museum, London)

Honourable East India Company

The Honourable East India Company (HEIC), often colloquially referred to as "John Company", was an early joint-stock company (the Dutch East India Company was the first to issue public stock). It was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, with the intention of favouring trade privileges in India. The Royal Charter effectively gave the newly created HEIC a 21 year monopoly on all trade in the East Indies. The Company transformed from a commercial trading venture to one that virtually ruled India as it acquired auxiliary governmental and military functions, until its dissolution in 1858 following the events of the Indian Mutiny.

Impact

Based in London, the company presided over the later creation of the British Raj. In 1617, the Company was given trade rights by Jahangir the Mughal Emperor. One hundred years later, it was granted a royal dictate from Emperor Farrukhsiyar exempting the Company from the payment of custom duties in Bengal, giving it a decided commercial advantage in the Indian trade. A decisive victory by Sir Robert Clive at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 established the Company as a military as well as a commercial power. By 1760, the French were driven out of India, with the exception of a few trading posts on the coast, such as Pondicherry. In South-East Asia, the company would establish the first trading posts and exert its military dominance leading to the eventual establishment of British Malaya, Hong Kong and Singapore as British Crown Colonies.

The Company also had interests along the routes to India from Great Britain. As early as 1620, the company attempted to lay claim to the Table Mountain region in South Africa; later it occupied and ruled St Helena. Piracy was a severe problem for the Company. This problem reached its peak in 1695, when pirate Henry Avery captured the Great Mughal's treasure fleet. The Company was held responsible for that raid, because according to Indian popular opinion of the time, all pirates were by definition English. Later, the Company unsuccessfully employed Captain Kidd to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean; it also cultivated the production of tea in India. Other notable events in the Company's history were that it held Napoleon captive on St Helena, and made the fortune of Elihu Yale. Its products were the basis of the Boston Tea Party in Colonial America.

Its shipyards provided the model for St Petersburg, while elements of its administration, the Honourable East India Company Civil Service (HEICS), survive in the Indian Civil Service (ICS). Its corporate structure was the most successful early example of a joint stock company. However, the demands of Company officers on the treasury of Bengal contributed tragically to the province's incapacity in the face of a famine, which killed millions of people in 1770-1773.


Letter from King James I to an Asian ruler, 30 March 1619, carried in the East India Company's sixth voyage. The letter, which has a blank space for a name to be inserted as appropriate, was returned to England unused.

History

The foundation years

The Company was founded as The Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies[1] by a coterie of enterprising and influential businessmen, who obtained the Crown's charter for exclusive permission to trade in the East Indies for a period of fifteen years. The Company had 125 shareholders, and a capital of �72,000. Initially, however, it made little impression on the Dutch control of the spice trade and at first it could not establish a lasting outpost in the East Indies. Eventually, ships belonging to the company arrived in India, docking at Surat, which was established as a trade transit point in 1608. In the next two years, it managed to build its first factory (as the trading posts were known) in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The high profits reported by the Company after landing in India (presumably owing to a reduction in overhead costs effected by the transit points), initially prompted King James I to grant subsidiary licenses to other trading companies in England. But, in 1609, he renewed the charter given to the Company for an indefinite period, including a clause which specified that the charter would cease to be in force if the trade turned unprofitable for three consecutive years.

The Company was led by one Governor and 24 directors who made up the Court of Directors. They were appointed by, and reported to, the Court of Proprietors. The Court of Directors had ten committees reporting to it.

Footholds in India

Traders were frequently engaged in hostilities with their Dutch and Portuguese counterparts in the Indian Ocean. A key event providing the Company with the favour of Mughal emperor Jahangir was their victory over the Portuguese in the Battle of Swally in 1612. Perhaps realizing the futility of waging trade wars in remote seas, the English decided to explore their options for gaining a foothold in mainland India, with official sanction of both countries, and requested the Crown to launch a diplomatic mission. In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe was instructed by James I to visit the Mughal emperor Jahangir (who ruled over most of the subcontinent, along with Afghanistan). The purpose of this mission was to arrange for a commercial treaty which would give the Company exclusive rights to reside and build factories in Surat and other areas. In return, the Company offered to provide to the emperor goods and rarities from the European market. This mission was highly successful and Jahangir sent a letter to the King through Sir Thomas Roe. He wrote:

    Upon which assurance of your royal love I have given my general command to all the kingdoms and ports of my dominions to receive all the merchants of the English nation as the subjects of my friend; that in what place soever they choose to live, they may have free liberty without any restraint; and at what port soever they shall arrive, that neither Portugal nor any other shall dare to molest their quiet; and in what city soever they shall have residence, I have commanded all my governors and captains to give them freedom answerable to their own desires; to sell, buy, and to transport into their country at their pleasure.

    For confirmation of our love and friendship, I desire your Majesty to command your merchants to bring in their ships of all sorts of rarities and rich goods fit for my palace; and that you be pleased to send me your royal letters by every opportunity, that I may rejoice in your health and prosperous affairs; that our friendship may be interchanged and eternal. [2]

Expansion

The company, under such obvious patronage, soon managed to eclipse the Portuguese Estado da India, which had established bases in Goa, Chittagong and Bombay (which was later ceded to England as part of the dowry of Catherine de Braganza). It managed to create strongholds in Surat (where a factory was built in 1612), Madras (1639), Bombay (1668) and Calcutta (1690). By 1647, the Company had 23 factories, each under the command of a 'factor' or master merchant, and 90 employees in India. The major factories became the walled forts of Fort William in Bengal, Fort St George in Madras and the Bombay Castle. In 1634, the Mughal emperor extended his hospitality to the English traders to the region of Bengal (and in 1717 completely waived customs duties for the trade). The company's mainstay businesses were by now in cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpetre and tea. All the while, it was making inroads into the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade in the Malaccan straits, which the Dutch had acquired by ousting the Portuguese in 1640-41. In 1711, the Company established a trading post in Canton (Guangzhou), China, to trade tea for silver. In 1657, Oliver Cromwell renewed the charter of 1609, and brought about minor changes in the holding of the Company. The status of the Company was further enhanced by the restoration of monarchy in England. By a series of five acts around 1670, King Charles II provisioned it with the rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops and form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the acquired areas. By 1689, the Company was arguably a "nation" in the Indian mainland, independently administering the vast presidencies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay and possessing a formidable and intimidating military strength. From 1698 the company was entitled to use the motto "Auspicio Regis et Senatus Angliae" meaning, "Under the patronage of the King and Parliament of England".

References
   1. John Keay, The Honourable Company - A History of the English East India Company, HarperCollins, London, 1991, ISBN 0-00-217515-0 (page 9)
   2. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/india/1617englandindies.html

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We have mentioned how conflict between Britain and France impelled British expansion overseas. The first great surge resulted from the first, true world war.

The Seven Years' War

The Seven Years' War, 1756-63, was the first global war. The protagonists were Britain, Prussia and Hanover against France, Austria, Sweden, Saxony, Russia and eventually Spain. Britain declined to commit its main forces on the continent, where it depended on the Prussians and German mercenaries to defend George II's Electorate of Hanover. Britain's war aims were to destroy the French navy and merchant fleet, seize its colonies, and eliminate France as a commercial rival. France found itself committed to fighting in Europe to defend Austria, which could do nothing to aid France overseas.


View of Notre-Dame de la Victoire
Richard Short's drawings show the devastation caused by the British bombardment of Qu�bec during the siege of 1759 (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-357).

War in the Colonies

Battles occurred in India, North America, Europe, the Caribbean isles, the Philippines and coastal Africa. During the 1750s up to 1763, Great Britain gained enormous areas of land and influence at the expense of the French. Robert Clive expelled the French from India, and General Wolfe defeated the French forces of General Montcalm at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, a victory which led to the surrender of Quebec to the British. Great Britain lost Minorca in the Mediterrean to the French in 1756 but captured the French colonies in Senegal on the African continent in 1758. The Royal Navy captured the French sugar colonies of Guadeloupe in 1759 and Martinique in 1762, as well as the Spanish cities of Havana in Cuba and Manila in the Philippines.

In 1758, the British mounted an attack on New France by land and by sea. The French fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island fell in 1758. And on 13 September 1759, General James Wolfe defeated the French forces at Qu�bec. By the autumn of 1760, French America had become British.

Towards the very end of the war, in 1762, French forces attacked St. John's, Newfoundland. If successful, the expedition would have strengthened France's hand at the negotiating table. Though they took St. John's and raided nearby settlements, the French forces were eventually defeated by British troops at the Battle of Signal Hill. This was the final battle of the war in North America, and it forced the French to surrender to the British under Colonel Jeffrey Amherst.

The history of the Seven Years' War, particularly the siege of Qu�bec and the death of Wolfe, generated a vast number of ballads, broadsides, images, maps and other printed materials, which testify to how this event continued to capture the imagination of the British public long after Wolfe's death in 1759.

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Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, meeting with Mir Jafar after Plassey, by Francis Hayman

One man more than any other was responsible for British expansion in the subcontinent.


Robert Clive, Baron Clive, 'Clive of India', 1725-1774

Born in Shropshire, Robert Clive gained a post as a scribe in the East India Company in 1743, but reached India (1744) deep in debt after a prolonged voyage out to India, after which he tried to shoot himself.

He quickly transfered to the military branch of the company, which was then engaged in the Carnatic Wars, and rose rapidly through the ranks, reaching captain by 1751. In the same year he was allowed to try out a plan for the capture of Arcot, capitol of the Carnatic, where he was then besieged.

The defense of Arcot (23 September-14 November 1751) made Clive's name. With just over 200 men, he held off a 10,000 strong attacking army, and once reenforced was able to go on the attack.

He was absent from India from 1753 to 1755, having returned to England to regain his health. In 1756, the new nabob of Bengal, Suraj Dowlah, broke his treaty with the East India Company, and occupied Calcutta, imprisoning the Company staff he found there in the Black Hole of Calcutta. Clive commanded the land forced sent against Suraj Dowlah, and on 23 June 1757 defeated his army at the battle of Plassey, deposing him, and gaining control of Bengal for the East India Company, who appointed him governor of Bengal (1757-1760).

He returned to England in 1760, where he became MP for Shrewsbury (1760-64), and was granted a Irish peerage (1762). In 1765 he was sent back to Bengal to restore good goverment, where he reformed civil and military administration and gained the offical lordship of Bengal for the East India Company with the agreement of the last Nabob.

When he returned to England in 1766, in poor health, his great wealth caused much jealousy, and he was forced to endure a parliamentary inquiry (1772-3), and although he was clearted, soon afterwards he committed suicide. William Pitt the Elder called him the 'heaven sent general', and his victories won control of India for Britain.

Robert Clive's early life: Listen

Robert Clive's legacy - on the streets of Calcutta: Listen

Hero to zero - tragic downfall of Clive of India: Listen

Robert Clive - statesman or warmonger?: Listen

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Opium Wars

Direct maritime trade between Europe and China (without Arab intermediaries) started in the 16th century, after the Portuguese established the settlement of Goa in India, and shortly thereafter that of Macau in southern China. After Spanish acquisition of the Philippines, the pace of exchange between China and the West accelerated dramatically. Manila galleons brought in far more silver to China than the ancient land route in interior Asia (the Silk Road). The Qing government attempted to limit contact with the outside world to a minimum for reasons of internal control. The Qing only allowed trade through the port of Canton (now Guangzhou). Severe red-tape and licensed monopolies were set up to restrict the trade flow. The results were high retail prices for imported goods and consequently limited demand for such goods. In order to prevent a trade deficit, Spain began to sell opium to the Chinese, along with New World products such as tobacco and corn.

As a result of high demand for tea, silk and porcelain in Britain and the low demand for British commodities in China, Britain had a large trade deficit with China and had to pay for these goods with silver. In an attempt to balance its trade deficit Britain began illegally exporting opium to China from British India in the 18th century. The opium trade took off rapidly, and the silver flow began to reverse. The sale and smoking of opium had been prohibited in 1729 by the Yongzheng Emperor because of the large number of addicts.

The growth of the opium trade

After Britain had conquered Bengal in the Battle of Plassey (1757), the British East India Company pursued a monopoly on production and export of opium in India.

In 1773, the Governor-General of Bengal pursued the monopoly on the sale of opium in earnest, and abolished the old opium syndicate at Patna. For the next 50 years, opium would be key to the East India Company's hold on India. Importation of opium into China was against Chinese law (although China did produce a small quantity domestically). Thus, the British East India Company would buy tea in Canton on credit, carrying no opium, but would instead sell opium at the auctions in Calcutta. Eventually, the opium would be smuggled to China. In 1797, the company ended the role of local Bengal purchasing agents and instituted the direct sale of opium to the company by farmers.

British exports of opium to China skyrocketed from an estimated 15 tons in 1730, to 75 tons in 1773, shipped in over two thousand "chests", each containing 140 pounds (64 kg) of opium.

Thus, in 1799, the Chinese Empire again banned opium imports. Shortly after, in 1810, the Empire issued an official decree:

    Opium has a harm. Opium is a poison, undermining our good customs and morality. Its use is prohibited by law. Now the commoner, Yang, dares to bring it into the Forbidden City. Indeed, he flouts the law!

    However, recently the purchases, eaters, and consumers of opium have become numerous. Deceitful merchants buy and sell it to gain profit. The customs house at the Ch'ung-wen Gate was originally set up to supervise the collection of imports (it had no responsibility with regard to opium smuggling). If we confine our search for opium to the seaports, we fear the search will not be sufficiently thorough. We should also order the general commandant of the police and police- censors at the five gates to prohibit opium and to search for it at all gates. If they capture any violators, they should immediately punish them and should destroy the opium at once. As to Kwangtung and Fukien, the provinces from which opium comes, we order their viceroys, governors, and superintendents of the maritime customs to conduct a thorough search for opium, and cut off its supply. They should in no ways consider this order a dead letter and allow opium to be smuggled out!
- (Lo-shu Fu, A Documentary Chronicle of Sino-Western relations, Vol. 1 (1966), page 380)

The decree had little effect since the Qing government was located in Beijing, in the north. However, the merchants smuggled opium into China from the south. This, along with the addictive properties of the drug, the desire for more profit by the British East India Company (which had been granted a monopoly on trade with China by the British government), and the fact that Britain wanted silver (see gold standard) only further developed the opium trade. By the 1820s, 900 tons of opium per year came into China from Bengal.

From the Napier Affair through the First Opium War (1834�1843)

In 1834, to accommodate the revocation of the East India Company's monopoly, the British sent Lord Napier to Macao. He attempted to circumvent the restrictive Canton Trade laws, which forbade direct contact with Chinese officials, and was turned away by the governor of Macao, who promptly closed trade starting on 2 September of that year. The British were not yet ready to force the matter, and agreed to resume trade under the old restrictions, even though Lord Napier implored them to force open the port.

Within the Chinese mandarinate, there was an ongoing debate over legalizing the opium trade itself. However, this idea was repeatedly rejected and instead, in 1838, the government decided to sentence native drug traffickers to death. Around this time, the British were selling roughly 1,400 tons per year to China. In March of 1839, the Emperor appointed a new strict Confucianist commissioner, Lin Zexu to control the opium trade at the port of Canton. His first course of action was to enforce the imperial demand that there be a permanent halt to drug shipments into China. When the British refused to end the trade, Lin imposed a trade embargo on the British. On 27 March 1839, Charles Elliot, British Superintendent of Trade, demanded that all British subjects turn over their opium to him, to be confiscated by Commissioner Lin Zexu, amounting to nearly a year's supply of the drug. After the opium was surrendered, trade was restarted on the strict condition that no more drugs would be smuggled into China. Lin demanded that British merchants had to sign a bond promising not to deal in opium under penalty of death.[2] The British officially opposed signing of the bond, but some British merchants that did not deal in opium were willing to sign. Lin then disposed of the opium by dissolving it with water, salt and lime and dumping it into the ocean.

In 1839, Lin took the extraordinary step of presenting a "memorial" (摺奏) directly to Queen Victoria questioning the moral reasoning of the royal government. Citing the strict prohibition of the opium trade within England, Ireland, and Scotland, Lin questioned how Britain could then profit from the drug in China. He also wrote:"Your Majesty has not before been thus officially notified, and you may plead ignorance of the severity of our laws, but I now give my assurance that we mean to cut this harmful drug forever.". Contrary to the accepted Chinese bureaucratic etiquette, though which such missives directly engaged the Emperor, Lin's memorial was never accorded a response.

The British government and merchants offered no response to Lin's moral questions. Instead, they accused Lin of destroying their private property. The British then responded by sending a large British Indian army, which arrived in June of 1840.



British military superiority was clearly evident during the armed conflict. British warships wreaked havoc on coastal towns. In addition, the British troops, armed with modern muskets and cannons, greatly outpowered the Qing forces. After the British took Canton, they sailed up the Yangtze and took the tax barges. This was a devastating blow to the Empire since it slashed the revenue of the imperial court in Beijing to just a small fraction.

In 1842, the Qing authorities sued for peace, which concluded with the Treaty of Nanking negotiated in August of that year and ratified in 1843. In the treaty, China was forced to pay an indemnity to Britain and agreed to open five ports to Britain, ceded Hong Kong to Queen Victoria and granted. In the supplementary Treaty of the Bogue, the Qing empire also granted Britain most favored nation treatment and gave British subjects extraterritorial privileges in the treaty ports. In 1844, the United States and France also concluded similar treaties with China, the Treaty of Wanghia and Treaty of Whampoa respectively.


Upper North Taku Fort in 1860

Second Opium War (1856-1860)

The Second Opium War, or Arrow War, broke out following an incident in which Chinese officials boarded a vessel near the port of Whampoa, the Arrow in October 1856. Arrow was owned by a Chinese privateer. The Chinese owner registered the vessel with the British authorities in Hong Kong with the purpose of making privateering easier. He received a one year permit from the Hong Kong authorities, but it had already expired when inspected by the Chinese officials who boarded the vessel. The crew of the Arrow were accused of piracy and smuggling, and were arrested. In response, the British consulate in Guangzhou insisted that Arrow was a British vessel. The British accused the Chinese officials of tearing down and insulting the British flag during inspection. The Second Opium War was started when British forces attacked Guangzhou in 1856.

French forces joined the British intervention after a French missionary Auguste Chapdelaine was killed by a local mandarin in China. Other nations became involved diplomatically although they didn't provide military personnel.

The Treaty of Tientsin was created in July 1858, but was not ratified by China until two years later; this would prove to be a very important document in China's early modern history, as it was one of the primary unequal treaties.

Hostilities broke out once more in 1859, after China refused the establishment of a British embassy in Beijing, which had been promised by the Treaty of Tientsin. Fighting erupted in Hong Kong, and in Beijing, where the British set fire to the Summer Palace and the Old Summer Palace after considerable looting took place.

In 1860, at the Convention of Peking, China ratified the Treaty of Tientsin, ending the war, legalizing the import of opium, and granting a number of privileges to British (and other Western) subjects within China.


The Hongs
Prior to the establishment of Hong Kong, the name "Hong" was given to major business houses under the chinese word 行. The Thirteen Factories are the original merchants in China under the Qing government.

Historically, the factories faded before they had any direct affect on Hong Kong's economic birth. Hong Kong generally begin counting the Hongs from the first generation of western or foreign companies, since they provided direct financial backings during the Colonial Hong Kong era.

Jardine Matheson had a Shanghai headquarters on the Bund, just south of the British Consulate. The headquarter was called "the Ewo Hong", or "Ewo House", after the Cantonese pronunciation of the company's Chinese name (怡和, yi wo). However, this is likely not the original source of the name, since the British have documented the term "Hong" during the times of the Thirteen Factories.

History

Prior to any banking institutions, besides small foreign bank branches, the three firms that financed most of Hong Kong's economic activities were the Jardine's, Dent's and the Russell's. Hence, most sources credit them as the original three.

The Hongs began during China's Qing dynasty, and grew in influence and power as Hong Kong separated from Imperial China in the early 19th Century. The original entities were mostly founded by westerners, namely British settlers within the Colonial Hong Kong community. The head of companies were referred to as tai-pans.

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The story of Pax Britannica revolves around individuals such as Wolfe, Clive and Jardine. One man more than any other became responsible for the dominant position of Britain in and around the Malay archipelago.

n 1819, Stamford Raffles (see below) bought Singapore for the East India Company. It became the most strategically important colony in Britain's eastern empire. His obsession was to stop the continuing Dutch usurpation of British interests in the East Indies.

In Calcutta, the governor general Lord Hastings (1754-1826, not Warren Hastings 1732-1818) conceded Raffles was right when he said that the most important waterway, the Malacca Strait, should be protected otherwise British trading could not be guaranteed. The Dutch had thought of this and already had trading stations and agreements along the route.

Raffles saw Singapore Island as the choke point and in January 1819 he signed an agreement with the local ruler that the East India Company could establish a trading post - in spite of the Company's reluctance, Raffles had effectively annexed the island and Singapore was eventually incorporated in the Straits Settlements.

Raffles understood that whatever Singapore's strategic value, the criterion of colonial administration was: will it show a relative trouble free profit? Hence his own opinion that contained an important qualification of British colonial policy at the start of the 19th century: "Our object is not territory but trade� a great commercial emporium and a fulcrum whence we may extend our influence politically as circumstances may hereafter require� By taking immediate possession we put a negative to the Dutch claim of exclusion and at the same time revive the drooping confidence of our allies and friends. One free port in these seas must eventually destroy the spell of Dutch monopoly and what Malta is in the west, that may Singapore become in the east�"

Raffles left in 1824 but Singapore grew in importance to every British colonial commercial and military plan for more than a century to come.

Raffles and the founding of Singapore

Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (6 July 1781 � 5 July 1826) was the founder of the city of Singapore (now the Republic of Singapore), and is one of the most famous Britons who expanded the British Empire.

In 1818, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles was appointed as the Lieutenant Governor of the British colony at Bencoolen. He was determined that British should replace the Dutch as the dominant power in the archipelago, since the trade route between China and British India, which had become vitally important with the institution of the opium trade with China, passed through the archipelago. The Dutch had been stifling British trade in the region by prohibiting the British from operating in Dutch-controlled ports or by subjecting them with high tariff. Raffles hoped to challenge the Dutch by establishing a new port along the Straits of Malacca, the main ship passageway for the India-China trade. He convinced Lord Hastings, the Governor-General of India and his superior at the British East India Company, to fund an expedition to seek a new British base in the region.

Raffles arrived in Singapore on 29 January 1819 and soon recognised the island as a natural choice for the new port. It lay at the southern tip of the Malay peninsula, near the Straits of Malacca, and possessed a natural deep harbour, fresh water supplies, and timber for repairing ships. Raffles found a small Malay settlement, with a population of a few hundreds, at the mouth of the Singapore River, headed by Temenggong Abdu'r Rahman. The island was nominally ruled by the Sultan of Johor, Tengku Rahman, who was controlled by the Dutch and the Bugis. However, the Sultanate was weakened by factional division and Temenggong Abdu'r Rahman and his officials were loyal to Tengku Rahman's elder brother Tengku Hussein (or Tengku Long) who was living in exile in Riau. With the Temenggong's help, Raffles managed to smuggle Hussein back into Singapore. He offered to recognise Hussein as the rightful Sultan of Johor and provide him with a yearly payment; in return, Hussein would grant the British the right to establish a trading post on Singapore.[ A formal treaty was signed on 6 February 1819 and modern Singapore was born.

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West Africa



Royal African Company

The Royal African Company was a slaving company set up by the Stuart family and London merchants once the former retook the English throne in the English Restoration of 1660. It was led by James, Duke of York, Charles II's brother.

Originally known as the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa, it was granted James II. Other slaves were branded with the company's initials, RAC, on their chests.[1]

Between 1672 and 1689 it transported around 90,000�100,000 slaves. Its profits made a major contribution to the increase in the financial power of those who controlled London.

In 1698, it lost its monopoly. This was advantageous for merchants in Bristol, even if, like the Bristolian Edward Colston, they had already been involved in the Company. The number of slaves transported on English ships then increased dramatically.

The company continued slaving until 1731, when it abandoned slaving in favour of trafficking in ivory and gold dust. It was dissolved in 1752, its successor being the African Company.

From 1668 to 1722 the Royal African Company provided gold to the English Mint. Coins made with this gold bear an elephant below the bust of the king and/or queen. This gold also gave the coinage its name�the guinea.


Royal Niger Company

The Royal Niger Company was a mercantile company chartered by the British government in the nineteenth century. It formed a basis of the modern state of Nigeria.

Sir George Taubman Goldie conceived the idea of adding to the British empire the then little known regions of the lower and middle Niger River, and for over twenty years his efforts were devoted to the realization of this conception. The method by which he determined to work was the revival of government by chartered companies within the empire, a method supposed to be buried with the British East India Company. The first step was to combine all British commercial interests in the Niger, and this he accomplished in 1879 when the United African Company was formed. In 1881 Goldie sought a charter from Gladstone's government but his attempts failed.

At this time French traders, encouraged by L�on Gambetta, established themselves on the lower river, thus rendering it difficult for the company to obtain territorial rights; but the Frenchmen were bought out in 1884, so that at the Berlin Conference on West Africa in 1885, Goldie, present as an expert on matters relating to the river, was able to announce that on the lower Niger the British flag alone flew. Meantime the Niger coast line had been placed under British protection. Over 400 political treaties drawn up by Goldie were made with the chiefs of the lower Niger and the Hausa states. The scruples of the British government being overcome, a charter was at length granted (July 1886), the National African Company becoming the Royal Niger Company, with Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare as governor and Goldie as vice-governor.

It was, however, evidently impossible for a chartered company to hold its own against the state-supported protectorates of France and Germany, and in consequence, on 1 January 1900, the Royal Niger Company transferred its territories to the British government for the sum of �865,000. The ceded territory together with the small Niger Coast Protectorate, already under imperial control, was formed into the two protectorates of northern and southern Nigeria.

George Taubman Goldie

Sir George Dashwood Taubman Goldie (20 May 1846 � 20 August 1925) was a Manx administrator who played a major role in the founding of Nigeria. In many ways, his role was similar to that of Cecil Rhodes elsewhere in Africa but he lacked Rhodes' thirst for publicity.

Early life

Born at The Nunnery, Douglas in the Isle of Man, the youngest son of Lieutenant Colonel John Taubman Goldie-Taubman, Speaker of the House of Keys, by his second wife Caroline Everina, daughter of John Eykyn Hovenden, a barrister of Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire. Sir George resumed his paternal name, Goldie, by Royal Licence in 1887.

He was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and for about two years held a commission in the Royal Engineers. He travelled in all parts of Africa, gaining an extensive knowledge of the continent, and first visited the country of the Niger in 1877.

The National African Company

He conceived the idea of adding to the British empire the then little known regions of the lower and middle Niger, and for over twenty years his efforts were devoted to the realization of this conception. The method by which he determined to work was the revival of government by chartered companies within the empire, a method supposed to be buried with the British East India Company. The first step was to combine all British commercial interests in the Niger, and this he accomplished in 1879 when the United African Company was formed.

In 1881 Goldie sought a charter from Gladstone's government. Objections of various kinds were raised. To meet them the capital of the company (renamed the National African Company) was increased from �250,000 to ~r,ooo,ooo, and great energy was displayed in founding stations on the Niger.

At this time French traders, encouraged by L�on Gambetta, established themselves on the lower river, thus rendering it difficult for the company to obtain territorial rights; but the Frenchmen were bought out in 1884, so that at the Berlin Conference on West Africa in 1885, Goldie, present as an expert on matters relating to the river, was able to announce that on the lower Niger the British flag alone flew. Meantime the Niger coast line had been placed under British protection. Through Joseph Thomson, David McIntosh, D. W. Sargent, J. Flint, William Wallace, E. Dangerfield and numerous other agents, over 400 political treaties drawn up by Goldie were made with the chiefs of the lower Niger and the Hausa states. The scruples of the British government being overcome, a charter was at length granted (July 1886), the National African Company becoming the Royal Niger Company, with Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare as governor and Goldie as vice-governor. In 1895, on Lord Aberdare's death, Goldie became governor of the company, whose destinies he had guided throughout.

German opposition

The building up of Nigeria as a British state had to be carried on in face of further difficulties raised by French travellers with political missions, and also in face of German opposition. From 1884 to 1890, Otto von Bismarck was a persistent antagonist, and the strenuous efforts he made to secure for Germany the basin of the lower Niger and Lake Chad were even more dangerous to Goldie's schemes of empire than the ambitions of France. Eduard Robert Flegel, who had travelled in Nigeria during 1882-1884 under the auspices of the British company, was sent out in 1885 by the newly-formed German Colonial Society to secure treaties for Germany, which had established itself at Cameroon. After Flegel's death in 1886, his work was continued by his companion Dr Staudinger, while Herr Hoenigsbcrg was despatched to stir up trouble in the occupied portions of the Company's territory, or, as he expressed it, "...to burst up the charter". He was finally arrested at Onitsha, and, after trial by the company's supreme court at Asaba, was expelled from the country. Bismarck then sent out his nephew, Herr von Puttkamer, as German consul general to Nigeria, with orders to report on this affair, and when, this report was published in a White Book, Bismarck demanded heavy damages from the company.

Meanwhile Bismarck maintained constant pressure on the British government to compel the Royal Niger Company to a division of spheres of influence, whereby Great Britain would have lost a third, and the most valuable part, of the company's territory. But he fell from power in March 1890, and in July following Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury concluded the famous Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty with Germany. After this event the aggressive action of Germany in Nigeria entirely ceased, and the door was opened for a final settlement of the Nigeria-Cameroon frontiers. These negotiations, which resulted in an agreement in 1893, were initiated by Goldie as a means of arresting the advance of France into Nigeria from the direction of the Congo. By conceding to Germany a long but narrow strip of territory between Adamawa and Lake Chad, to which she had no treaty claims, a barrier was raised against French expeditions, semi-military and semi-exploratory, which sought to enter Nigeria from the east. Later French efforts at aggression were made from the western or Dahomeyan side, despite an agreement concluded with France in 1890 respecting the northern frontier.

The end of the Company

The hostility of certain Fula princes led the company to despatch, in 1897, an expedition against the Muslim states of Nupe and Ilorin. This expedition was organized and personally directed by Goldie and was completely successful. Internal peace was thus secured, but in the following year the differences with France in regard to the frontier line became acute, and compelled the intervention of the British government. In the negotiations which ensued Goldie was instrumental in preserving for Great Britain the whole of the navigable stretch of the lower Niger. It was, however, evidently impossible for a chartered company to hold its own against the state-supported protectorates of France and Germany, and in consequence, on 1 January 1900, the Royal Niger Company transferred its territories to the British government for the sum of �865,000. The ceded territory together with the small Niger Coast Protectorate, already under imperial control, was formed into the two protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria.

Later enterprises

In 1903-1904, at the request of the Chartered Company of South Africa, Goldie visited Rhodesia and examined the situation in connection with the agitation for self-government by the Rhodesians. In 1902-1903 he was one of the Royal Commissioners who inquired into the military preparations for the war in South Africa (1899-1902) and into the operations up to the occupation of Pretoria, and in 1905-1906 was a member of the Royal Commission which investigated the methods of disposal of war stores after peace had been made.

Later life

Goldie died in 1925, and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

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Southern Africa


Africa from Cairo to the Cape (according to Cecil Rhodes)

British South Africa Company

The British South Africa Company (BSAC) was established by Cecil Rhodes through the amalgamation of the Central Search Association and the Exploring Company Ltd., receiving a royal charter in 1889. Modelling the BSAC on the British East India Company, Rhodes hoped it would enable colonisation and economic exploitation across much of south-central Africa, as part of the "Scramble for Africa". The company's directors included the Duke of Abercorn, Rhodes himself and the financier Alfred Beit.

Powerful company

Trading

The company was empowered to trade with African rulers such as King Lobengula; to form banks; to own, manage and grant or distribute land, and to raise a police force (the British South Africa Police). In return, the company agreed to develop the territory it controlled; to respect existing African laws; to allow free trade within its territory and to respect all religions. But Rhodes and the white settlers who made up the company were known best for setting their sights for ever more mineral rights and more territorial consessions from the African peoples, establishing their own governments, making their own laws little concern or respect for African law, and flexing their muscles with their artillery.

Security

The company recruited its own army, and attacked and defeated the Matabele and Shona north of the Limpopo river in what became known as the First Matabele War. It was the first time in history Britons have used the Maxim gun in combat (five Maxims to five thousand Ndebele casualties). The company carved out (and for the following three decades administered) a territory which it named Zambezia, and later, Rhodesia, and which now covers the area occupied by the republics of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Medal

In 1896, Queen Victoria sanctioned the issue by the British South Africa Company of a medal to troops who had been engaged in the First Matabele War. In 1897, the Queen sanctioned another medal for those engaged in the two campaigns of the Second Matabele War: Rhodesia (1896) and Mashonaland (1897). The government of Southern Rhodesia re-issued the medal to commemorate the earlier 1890 Pioneer Column, in 1927.

Politics

In 1914, the royal charter was renewed, on condition that settlers in Rhodesia were given increased political rights. In 1922, the company entered negotiations with the government of the Union of South Africa, which was keen to take over the territory - a plan foiled by the colony's settlers, who voted against incorporation with South Africa. In 1923, Britain chose not to renew the BSA Co's charter, and instead accorded 'self-governing' colony status to Southern Rhodesia (today, Zimbabwe) and protectorate status to Northern Rhodesia (today, Zambia).

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The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), chartered 2 May 1670, is the oldest incorporated joint-stock merchandising company in the English-speaking world. Formerly headquartered in London, England, and via an intermediary residence in Winnipeg, Manitoba, its head offices are located in Toronto, Ontario. Among general retailers in Canada, HBC continues to lead its next-closest competitor, Sears, in terms of annual sales. In 2003, HBC posted revenues of $7.4 billion and reported close to 70 000 employees. The group retails under the following names: The Bay, Zellers, Fields, and Home Outfitters.


Travelling by Canoe
Two of the Hudson's Bay Company's officers travelling in a birchbark canoe manned by voyageurs. Peter Rindisbacher, circa 1823, watercolour (courtesy NGC).

Hudson Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson in French) is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world. It was once the de facto government in parts of North America before European-based colonies and nation states existed. It was at one time the largest landowner in the world, with Rupert's Land being a large part of North America. From its longtime headquarters at York Factory on Hudson Bay, it controlled the fur trade throughout much of British-controlled North America for several centuries, undertaking early exploration and functioning as the de facto government in many areas of the continent before the arrival of large-scale settlement. Its traders and trappers forged early relationships with many groups of First Nations/Native Americans and its network of trading posts formed the nucleus for later official authority in many areas of western Canada and the United States. In the late 19th century, its vast territory became the largest component in the newly formed Dominion of Canada, in which the company was the largest private landowner. With the decline of the fur trade, the company evolved into mercantile business selling vital goods to settlers in the Canadian West.


Rupert's Land, once controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company

Early years

In the 17th century the French had a monopoly on the Canadian fur trade. However, two French traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and M�dard des Groseilliers, learned from the Cree that the best fur country was north and west of Lake Superior and that there was a "frozen sea" still further north; correctly guessing that this was the Hudson Bay, they sought French backing for a plan to set up a trading post on the Bay, thus reducing the cost of moving furs overland. However, the recently appointed French Secretary of State, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, was trying to promote farming in the colony, and was opposed to exploration and trapping.

Radisson and des Groseilliers then approached a group of businessmen in Boston, Massachusetts to help finance their explorations. The Bostonians agreed on the plan's merits, and brought the two to England to elicit financing. In 1668, the English commissioned two ships, the Nonsuch and the Eaglet to explore possible trade into Hudson Bay. The Nonsuch was commanded by Captain Zachariah Gillam and accompanied by Groseilliers, while the Eaglet was commanded by Captain William Stannard and accompanied by Radisson. On 5 June 1668, both ships left port at Deptford, England, but the Eaglet was forced to turn back off the coast of Ireland. The Nonsuch continued on all the way to the southern portion of James Bay, where Fort Rupert was founded at the mouth of the Rupert River. After a successful trading expedition over the winter of 1668�1669, the Nonsuch returned to England.

The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay was incorporated on 2 May 1670, with a Royal Charter from King Charles II. The charter granted the company a monopoly over the Indian Trade, especially the fur trade, in the region watered by all rivers and streams flowing into Hudson Bay in northern Canada, an area known as Rupert's Land after the first director of the Company, Prince Rupert of the Rhine. This region constitutes 1.5 million square miles (3.9 million km�) in the drainage basin of Hudson Bay, comprising over one third the area of modern-day Canada and stretching into the north central United States, but the specific boundaries were unknown at the time.

The company founded its first headquarters at Fort Nelson at the mouth of the Nelson River in present-day northeastern Manitoba. The location afforded convenient access to the fort from the vast interior waterway systems of the Saskatchewan and Red rivers. Other posts were quickly established around the southern edge of Hudson Bay in Manitoba and present-day Ontario and Quebec. Called "factories" (because the "factor", i.e. a person acting as a mercantile agent and frequently specializing in one or a small number of commodities, did business from there), these posts operated in the manner of the Dutch fur trading operations in New Netherland.

During the spring and summer, First Nations traders, who did the vast majority of the actual trapping, travelled by canoe and were received at the fort to sell their pelts. In exchange they typically received metal tools and hunting gear, often imported by the company from Germany, the centre of inexpensive manufacturing in that era.

The early coastal factory model contrasted with the system of the French, who established an extensive system of inland posts and sent traders to live among the tribes of the region. The conservative nature of the English company's more centralized factory system frustrated the company's founders, Radisson and Des Groseilliers, who urged bolder explorations of the continental interior. In 1674 they switched their allegiance back to France and in 1682 they founded North West Company to directly compete with the company. After war broke out in Europe between France and England in the 1680s, the two nations regularly sent expeditions to raid and capture each other's fur trading posts. In March 1686, the French sent a raiding party under Chevalier des Troyes over 1300 km (800 miles) to capture the company's posts along James Bay. The French appointed Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, who had shown extreme heroism during the raids, as commander of the company's captured posts. In 1697, d'Iberville commanded a French naval raid on the company's headquarters at York Factory. On the way to the fort, he defeated three ships of the Royal Navy in the Battle of the Bay, the largest naval battle in the history of the North American Arctic. D'Iberville's depleted French force captured York Factory by a ruse in which they laid siege to fort while pretending to be a much larger army. York Factory changed hands several times in the next decade. It was finally ceded permanently to what was by then the Kingdom of Great Britain (following the union of Scotland and England in 1707) in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. After the treaty, the company rebuilt York Factory as a brick star fort at the mouth of the nearby Hayes River, its present location.

In its trade with native peoples, the company adopted the widespread use of issuing wool blankets, called Hudson's Bay point blankets, in exchange for the beaver pelts trapped by native hunters.

A parallel may be drawn between HBC's control over Rupert's Land and the trade monopoly and government functions enjoyed by the Honourable East India Company over India during roughly the same period.

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Merchant Adventurers

The Company of Merchant Adventurers of London was founded in 1407 and became London's leading guild of overseas merchants.

The Bristol equivalent is the Society of Merchant Venturers.

The Society of Merchant Venturers (or just the "Merchant Venturers") is a private charitable organisation in the English city of Bristol, which dates back to the 13th century.


Society of Merchant Venturers

The Society of Merchant Venturers (or just the "Merchant Venturers") is a private charitable organisation in the English city of Bristol, which dates back to the 13th century. At one time it was practically synonymous with the Corporation (local government) of Bristol and for many years had effective control of Bristol's port. It is still seen by some as unduly influential and overly secretive.

[edit] History

A Guild of Merchants was founded in Bristol by the 13th century, and swiftly became active in civic life; by the 15th century it had become synonymous with the town's government. It funded John Cabot's voyage of discovery to Newfoundland in 1497. The society in its current form was established by a 1552 Royal Charter from Edward VI granting the society a monopoly on Bristol's sea trade. They remained in effective control of Bristol Docks until 1848. Further charters were granted by Charles I, Charles II and Elizabeth II. The society was active in the colonisation of North America, helping to establish the Bristol's Hope and Cuper's Cove colonies in Newfoundland.

In 1595 the Merchant Venturers' School was founded, which subsequently became the Merchant Venturers' Technical College and was a precursor of the University of Bristol, the University of the West of England and City of Bristol College. In 1676 the society took control of the Manor of Clifton including Clifton Down. Around 1700 many Merchant Venturers including the celebrated Edward Colston were active in the slave trade, a connection which still haunts the society. Colston also founded almshouses and a school which still exists today.


Muscovy Company

The Muscovy Company (also called Russian Company or Muscovy Trading Company, Russian: Московская компания), was a trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major English joint-stock trading company, the precursor of the type of business that would soon flourish in England, and became closely associated with such famous names as Henry Hudson and William Baffin. The Muscovy Company had a monopoly on trade between England and Muscovy until 1698 and it survived until the Russian Revolution of 1917.

History

The Muscovy Company traces its roots to the Company of Merchant Adventurers (in full: 'Mystery and Company of Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of Regions, Dominions, Islands, and Places unknown') founded in 1551 by Richard Chancellor, Sebastian Cabot and Sir Hugh Willoughby, who decided to look for the Northeast Passage to China.

The first expedition of the Company of Merchant Adventurers was led by Willoughby, who seems to have been chosen for his leadership skills and unfortunately had no prior nautical or navigational experience. Chancellor would function as the navigator of the small fleet, which consisted of three ships: the Bona Esparanza under Willoughby, the Edward Bonaventure under Chancellor and the Bona Confidentia). The fleet departed from London on 10 May 1553, but near the Lofoten islands the ships were caught in a storm and Chancellor's ship was separated from the other two.

Willoughby eventually crossed the Barents Sea and reached Novaya Zemlya. He spent some time sailing along the coast, then turned south towards Scandinavia. However at the mouth of the Arzina river on the coast near Murmansk the ship became trapped in ice. Willoughby and the crew were not prepared for the cold, and after a few desperate failed attempts to find help he and his men froze to death in the extreme cold of the northern winter. The following year the ship, laden with frozen corpses, was discovered by Russian fishermen.

Chancellor was luckier. He penetrated the White Sea, where the local fishermen were amazed by the great size of his Western-built ship. He reached the harbour of Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery on the Northern Dvina river, near the present-day Arkhangelsk which would be eventually founded in 1584 to service the growing trade. The region had just recently been added to Muscovy, and when tsar Ivan the Terrible heard of Chancellor's arrival, he immediately invited the exotic guest to visit Moscow for an audience at the royal court.

Chancellor made the journey of over 600 miles (over 1000 kilometres) to Moscow through snow and ice covered country. He found Moscow large (much larger than London) and primitively built, most houses being constructed of wood. However, the palace of the tsar was very luxurious, as were the dinners he offered Chancellor. The Russian tsar was pleased to open the sea trading routes with England and other countries, as Russia did not yet have a connection with the Baltic Sea at the time and the entire area was contested by the neighbouring powers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Swedish Empire. In addition, the Hanseatic League had a monopoly on the trade between Russia and Central and Western Europe. Chancellor was no less optimistic, finding a good market for his English wool, and receiving furs and other Russian continental goods in return. When he returned to England in 1554, he had letters from the tsar with him, inviting British traders and promising trade privileges.

The Company of Merchant Adventurers renamed itself the Muscovy Company, and in 1555 Chancellor left for Russia again. The Muscovy Company began to serve as an important diplomatic link between Muscovy and England, and was especially important for the previously landlocked Muscovy. When Chancellor returned to England one year later in 1556, he was joined by the first Russian ambassador to England, Osip Nepeya. However this is where Chancellor's luck finally ran out. Off the Scottish coast, his ship was caught in a sudden storm and shipwrecked. Chancellor drowned, but Nepeya managed to reach the coast, where he was taken hostage by the Scots for a few months before being able to travel on to London.

Chancellor was succeeded as the main trader of the Muscovy Company by Anthony Jenkinson, who made two important voyages himself - one trying to reach Cathay overland from Moscow, eventually stopping at Bukhara, the other, between 1562 and 1579 to establish overland trade routes through Russia to Persia. In 1567, when Muscovy was faring badly in the Livonian War, Jenkinson was asked by Tsar Ivan to sound out Queen Elizabeth I of England as a marriage prospect, providing possible refuge to the tsar if he was forced to flee the country. The negotiations yielded no results, and Tsar Ivan was soon forced to sign a ceasefire with Poland. Eventually, after his death, the country was ravaged by the civil wars of the Time of Trouble.

A further voyage undertaken by the Muscovy Company shortly after Chancellor's death, was another attempt to complete the Northeast Passage, led by Stephen Burrough. He managed to sail through the "Kara Gate", as the strait between Vaygach and Novaya Zemlya is known.

In 1646, English merchants were expelled from Muscovy, but trade reopened on the restoration of Charles II in 1660, when it was also reorganized as a regulated company. It enjoyed important privileges until 1649 and a monopoly on the English Russia trade until 1698, when it losts its privileges due to political opposition. It continued in existence until the Russian Revolution of 1917. The company headquarters (called the Old English Yard), built during the reign of Ivan the Terrible not far from the Moscow Kremlin, were visited by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.

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The Eastland Company

The Eastland Company, or North Sea Company, was an English crown-chartered company, founded in 1579 to foster trade with Scandinavia and Baltic Sea states. Like the better-known Russia Company, this was an attempt by the English to challenge the Hanseatic League's dominance in the commerce of Eastern and Central Europe.

Its charter was dated in 1579. By the first article, the company was erected into a body politic, under the title of the Company of Merchants of the East; to consist of Englishmen, all practicing merchants, who have trafficked through the sound, before the year 1568, into Norway, Sweden, Poland, Livonia, Prussia, Pomerania, etc., and likewise Revel, K�nigsberg, Dantzic, Copenhagen, etc., excepting Narva, Muscovy, and its dependencies. Most of the following articles granted them the usual prerogatives of such companies, including a seal, governor, courts, laws, etc.

The privileges specific to this company, compared to other English companies of the time, were:

    * That none shall be admitted a member, who is already a member of another company, nor any retail dealer at all.
    * That no qualified merchant be admitted without paying 6 pounds 13 shillings 6 pence.
    * That a member of another company, desiring to renounce the privileges thereof, and to be received into that of the East, shall be admitted gratis, provided that he procures the same favor for a merchant of the East, willing to fill his place.
    * That the Merchant Adventurers who never dealt in the East, in the places expressed in the charter, may be received as members of the company on paying 40 marks. That notwithstanding this union of the Adventurers of England with the Company of the East, each shall retain its rights and privileges.
    * That they shall export no cloths but what are dyed and pressed; except 100 pieces every year, which are allowed them gratis.

This charter was confirmed by Charles II in 1661, with this addition; that no person of what quality soever, living in London, should be admitted a member unless he were free of the city.

The company's crest featured a creature called an allocamelus, which was either a mythical beast or may have been inspired by the first llamas brought to Europe.

See also:
The Mercery Of London: Trade, Goods And People, 1130-1578