The East India Company: The Private Corporation That Bought an Empire
On 30 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth I signed a charter for 215 London merchants. The new body was called the “Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies”. It received an exclusive trading zone from the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to the Strait of Magellan in South America. A record at the [British Library](https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/036-000178601) shows that this was
On 30 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth I signed a charter for 215 London merchants. The new body was called the “Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies”. It received an exclusive trading zone from the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to the Strait of Magellan in South America. A record at the British Library shows that this was more than a trading licence. The company could establish stations, keep soldiers, build forts, make rules, and discipline English people inside its sphere.
On 30 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth I signed a charter for 215 London merchants. The new body was called the “Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies”. It received an exclusive trading zone from the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to the Strait of Magellan in South America. A record at the [British Library](https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/036-000178601) shows that this was
On 30 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth I signed a charter for 215 London merchants. The new body was called the “Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies”. It received an exclusive trading zone from the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to the Strait of Magellan in South America. A record at the [British Library](https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/036-000178601) shows that this was
On 30 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth I signed a charter for 215 London merchants. The new body was called the “Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies”. It received an exclusive trading zone from the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to the Strait of Magellan in South America. A record at the [British Library](https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/036-000178601) shows that this was
On 30 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth I signed a charter for 215 London merchants. The new body was called the “Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies”. It received an exclusive trading zone from the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to the Strait of Magellan in South America. A record at the [British Library](https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/036-000178601) shows that this was