The East India Company (EIC), also known as the Honourable East India Company (HEIC) or the British East India Company and informally as John Company, was an English and later British joint-stock company, which was formed to pursue trade with the East Indies but ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing China.
Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies", the company rose to account for half of the world's trade, particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpeter, tea and opium. The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.
The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, making it the oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies. Wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the Company's shares. The government owned no shares and had only indirect control.
The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own private armies, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India (sometimes, Company Raj) refers to the rule or dominion of the British East India Company over parts of the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when the Nawab of Bengal Sirajuddaulah surrendered his dominions to the Company, in 1765, when the Company was granted the diwani, or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar, or in 1773, when the Company established a capital in Calcutta, appointed its first Governor-General, Warren Hastings, and became directly involved in governance. The Company's rule lasted until 1858, when, after the Indian rebellion of 1857, it was abolished. With the Government of India Act 1858, the British government assumed the task of directly administering India in the new British Raj.
Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances. It was dissolved in 1874 as a result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act passed one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless, and obsolete. The official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies.
Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies", the company rose to account for half of the world's trade, particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpeter, tea and opium. The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.
The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, making it the oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies. Wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the Company's shares. The government owned no shares and had only indirect control.
The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own private armies, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India (sometimes, Company Raj) refers to the rule or dominion of the British East India Company over parts of the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when the Nawab of Bengal Sirajuddaulah surrendered his dominions to the Company, in 1765, when the Company was granted the diwani, or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar, or in 1773, when the Company established a capital in Calcutta, appointed its first Governor-General, Warren Hastings, and became directly involved in governance. The Company's rule lasted until 1858, when, after the Indian rebellion of 1857, it was abolished. With the Government of India Act 1858, the British government assumed the task of directly administering India in the new British Raj.
Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances. It was dissolved in 1874 as a result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act passed one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless, and obsolete. The official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies.
¼ Anna - KM#446
Obv : Coat of arms of the East India Company: 2 lions, St George's cross on the crest and flags, motto on the ribbon "Auspicio Regis et Senatus Angliae"
1835
AUSP: REG: SEN: ANG:
Translation: By the Command of the King and Parliament of EnglandRev : The value in English within a wreath of laurel:ONE QUARTER ANNA.
Around this the legend: EAST INDIA COMPANY all within a raised, plain rim.
EAST INDIA COMPANY
یک پای
ONE
QUARTER
ANNA
Details :
Plain Edge
KM#446
½ Anna - KM#447
Obv :
Coat of arms of the East India Company: 2 lions, St George's cross on
the crest and flags, motto on the ribbon "Auspicio Regis et Senatus
Angliae"
1835
AUSP: REG: SEN: ANG:
Translation: By the Command of the King and Parliament of EnglandRev : The value in English within a wreath of laurel:HALF ANNA.
Around this the legend: EAST INDIA COMPANY all within a raised, plain rim.
EAST INDIA COMPANY
روپای
HALF
ANNA
Details :
Plain Edge
KM#447
References :
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company
- South Asian Coins & Paper Money (INDIAN EDITION) - Krause Publication
- The Uniform Coinage of India 1835 to 1947-A Catalogue and Pricelist by Paul Stevens, Randy Weir
- Coins of the British Commonwealth of Nations Part IV by Fred Pridmore
