Various Charter Acts passed by the British Parliament

Various Charter Acts passed by the British Parliament

The English East India Company established in 1600 had a humble beginning in India by having various factories at Surat, Broach, Masulipatnam, etc. However, the East India Company’s trading powers were gradually weakened by different Charter Acts passed by the British Parliament.

Various Charter Acts passed by the British Parliament

Charter Act of 1793: It gave the East India Company a monopoly to trade with East only for a period of 20 years.

The Charter Act of 1813: It ended the trade monopoly of East India Company in India. However, the Company could only retain its monopoly over tea trade and Chinese trading. Trade in India in all the commodities except tea was thrown open to all British subjects.

The Charter Act of 1833: It ended the d the activities of the I s of the East India Company as a commercial body and it became a purely administrative body.

The Charter Act of 1853: The Act renewed the powers of the company and allowed it to retain the possession of the India territories and that too not for any specified period as the previous Acts had done but only until the Parliament should otherwise provide. It ended the monopoly in trade with China and the monopoly to trade in tea in India.

The Government of India Act of 1858: The act known as the Act for the Good Government of India, abolished the East India Company, and transferred the powers of Government, territories and revenues to the British Crown.

Though initially the East India Company began to use its political leverage to gain monopolistic control over Indian trade and production, issues with the relationships of the Company with the British government as well as the emergence of Adam Smith’s free market theory eventually led to the dilution of the Company’s monopoly in the Indian subcontinent.