The Charter allowed for the creation of a radically new type of business: not a family partnership – hitherto the norm in most parts of the world – but a joint-stock company that could issue freely tradable shares to an unlimited number of investors, a mechanism capable of making much larger capitals. The first chartered society was the Muscovy Company, which received its charter in 1555. The East India Company was founded 44 years later. The articles of association did not mention that the EIC held overseas territories, but they gave the company the right to “go to war” if necessary. Photo (1897) of the first locomotive, pictured on the right and named “multum in parvo” (barely visible on the wheel housing), used in 1854 by the East Indian Railway Company on its 23-mile route from Howrah to Padua. On the very last day of 1600, Queen Elizabeth I. a group of London merchants signed a charter for exclusive overseas trade rights with the East Indies, a vast part of the world that stretched east from the African Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn in South America. The new British East India Company was a monopoly in the sense that no other British subject could legally trade in this region, but it was in fierce competition with the Spanish and Portuguese, who already had trading posts in India, as well as the Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602. As I walked past the fortress walls, I thought about the connection between business and politicians in India today – which has brought individual wealth that rivals that of Clive and his colleagues. The country now accounts for 6.9% of the world`s roughly one thousand billionaires, even though its gross domestic product represents only 2.1% of global GDP. The total wealth of Indian billionaires is equivalent to about 10% of the country`s GDP – while the comparable ratio for Chinese billionaires is less than 3%.
More importantly, much of this wealth was created by manipulating state power – using political influence to gain rights to land and minerals, “flexibility” in regulation, and protection from foreign competition. One of the very first Indian words to enter the English language was Hindustani slang for plunder: “prey”. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this word was rarely heard outside the plains of northern India until the late 18th century, when it suddenly became a common term throughout Britain. To understand how and why it took root and thrived in such a distant landscape, just visit Powis Castle. When the news reached England, it caused an uproar. To appease Aurangzeb, the East India Company promised to pay all financial reparations, while parliament declared the pirates hostis humani generis (“enemies of humanity”). In mid-1696, the government put a £500 bounty on Every`s head and offered a free pardon to any informant who revealed his whereabouts. When the East India Company later doubled this award, the first world manhunt in history was underway. [46] Indian education had become a subject of interest to East India Company officials since the beginning of the Company`s reign in Bengal.
[83] During the last two decades of the 18th century and the first decade of the nineteenth century, representatives of society pursued a policy of reconciliation towards the Indigenous culture of their new domination, particularly with regard to educational policy. [83] During the 19th century. In the nineteenth century, the Indian literacy rate was less than half its post-independence level, which was 18.33% in 1951. This policy had three objectives: “to promote Indians in their own culture, to promote knowledge of India, and to use this knowledge in government.” [83] The Department of Public Instruction was established in 1855. In January 1857, the University of Calcutta was founded, followed by the University of Bombay in June 1857 and the University of Madras in September 1857. The University of Bombay, for example, consisted of three affiliated institutions: the Elphinstone Institution, the Grant Medical College and the Poona Sanskrit College. The company`s administration also established masses of secondary schools in the various provinces and presidencies, and the policy continued during the crown reign that began in 1858. In 1861, 230,000 students attended public schools in the four provinces (the three presidencies and the northwestern provinces), of whom 200,000 attended elementary schools. [85] More than 5,000 primary schools and 142 secondary schools have been established in these provinces. [85] Earlier, during the Indian rebellion of 1857, some civilian leaders, such as Khan Bhadur Khan of Bareilly, had pointed out the threat that the Company`s new educational programs posed to the religions; However, historical statistics have shown that this is generally not the case.
