James Lancaster and the Red Dragon.
Lancaster's voyage to the Indies from 1601 to 1603 on behalf of the East India Company excited investors and the English government alike.
The beginning of the British East India Company
The company was formed to share in the East Indian spice trade. This trade had been a monopoly of Spain and Portugal until the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) by England gave the English the chance to break the monopoly. Until 1612 the company conducted separate voyages, separately subscribed. There were temporary joint stocks until 1657, when a permanent joint stock was raised.
The company met with opposition from the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and the Portuguese. The Dutch virtually excluded company members from the East Indies after the Amboina Massacre in 1623 (an incident in which English, Japanese, and Portuguese traders were executed by Dutch authorities), but the company’s defeat of the Portuguese in India (1612) won them trading concessions from the Mughal Empire. The company settled down to a trade in cotton and silk piece goods, indigo, and saltpetre, with spices from South India. It extended its activities to the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.
Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/176643/East-India-Company
Reflective Questions:
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What was the role of the British East India Company founded?
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Was the company purely a private enterprise?
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Were there competitors of the company?