This greatly enhanced the company’s powers. Through a series of acts around the year 1670, the company gained rights to acquire territory, mint money, command fortresses and troops, form alliances, indulge in war, and exercise civil and criminal jurisdiction over their acquired territories. The major factories became the walled forts of Fort William in Bengal, Fort St George in Madras, and Bombay Castle in Bombay. By 1647, the company had 23 factories, under the command of a merchant and a governor. The Company under the patronage of the Emperor soon established Trading posts at Surat (1619), Madras (1639), Bombay (1668), and Calcutta (1690). The Emperor gave his permission and thus began the arrival of The Company in India. The treaty was that the Company would be given exclusive rights to establish factories and reside there at different locations in return for goods and rarities from European markets for the emperor. The Company then requested the Crown to launch a diplomatic mission to the then Mughal Empire Jahangir to gain territory in mainland India. The East India Company after defeating The Portuguese in the Battle of Swally (1612), at Suvali in Surat gave a major victory to the Company. In 1610 the first Company factory was established at Machilipatnam along the Coromandel Coast. The first voyage to India was led by Sir James Lancaster (1601) to Surat where the first British Trading Post in India was established in 1608. These increasing problems prompted the Company to shift its focus to Trading of Cotton and Silk from India instead of trading in Spices from India. There were many such profitable voyages but there was fierce competition from The Dutch and Portuguese who were already well established in the trading business and Pirate attacks. The First Voyage of East India Company (EIC) started in April (1601) with five ships commanded by James Lancaster and returned with a cargo of pepper, a highly in-demand spice weighing a total of Five Hundred Kilograms. The Court of Directors used to report to The Court of Proprietors, which appointed them. The Company was governed by a Governor along with Twenty-Four Directors or Committees who were primarily from the Court of Directors. The charter gave the company a monopoly to trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan.To maintain Law and Order on long voyages The Company used the Crown’s powers and thus permitted itself to select a Commander in Chief on each Voyage and that person could punish anyone and set into motion “The Martial Law”.No British Subject could carry trade without a license from The Company.The Affairs were to be conducted on Democratic lines.The Charter had a life span of Fifteen Years.It gave the company the exclusive right to trade in the whole of Asia, Africa and America.It gave exclusive trading rights to The Company.The Charter gave the company permission for traffic along with Merchandise Trade and permission to assemble at any convenient place, to make reasonable laws and ordinances for the good government of the East India Company.The Charter was mainly given the Queen assent to meet competition with The Dutch and Portuguese. The Company had begun its operations as a trading company but it soon became interested in politics and to act as an agent of The British Government in India. The Company at one point in time used to account for half of the world’s trade ranging from cotton, silk, indigo, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, to opium. The East India Company was originally chartered on Thirty-One December 1600 from Queen Elizabeth I under the name of “ Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies” to George Earl along with Two Hundred and Fifteen Knights, Aldermen (Elected Municipal Officials) and Burgesses (Freemen of Scotland Representatives). The East India Company (EIC)/The British East India Company was an English and later a British Joint Stock Company primarily formed to trade with The Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia and also the Qing Dynasty ruled China. This Is Cause VOC Being Dissolved The Charter of 1600 :
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