The Honourable Company, as it liked to call itself, paid a dividend of 8% and was able to borrow hugely, with a total debt burden of £6 million in 1744. was running a business that brought in nearly £1 million a year, an eighth of all Britain’s imports. By the 1750s, from its sober headquarters in Leadenhall Street, the East India Co. it maie please the Lorde to prosper).”Īnd it did please the Lord. by buying or bartering of suche goodes, wares, jewelles or merchaundize as those Ilands or Cuntries may yeld or afforthe. The company they were all there to promote was “to venter in the pretended voiage to ye East Indies and other Ilands and Cuntries thereabouts to make trade. Among those present were the unstoppable explorer William Baffin and the great colonial booster Richard Hakluyt. There in this old merchants’ hall (founders meant brassfounders, not founding fathers) were assembled more than 100 of the City’s richest merchants and sea captains, all primed to subscribe large sums ranging from £100 to £3,000 for the greatest startup in history. If ever you wanted to see the shape of the future, the best place would have been in Founders’ Hall in the City of London on Sept. Photo: Mary Evans/Otto Money/The Image Works Depiction of the Battle of Pollilur (1780), from a mural celebrating the decisive victory of Tipu Sultan over East India Co.
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