Announcer

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from howstuffworks.com.

Candace Keynard

Hello, and welcome to the Podcast. I’m Editor Candace Keynard joined by staff writer, Jane McGrath.

Jane McGrath

Hello, Candace.

Candace Keynard

I have a new last name, yes. But the content is all the same on the inside so don’t be fooled.

Jane McGrath

Oh, I don’t know, you’re a different person to me.

Candace Keynard

I’m smiling a lot more -

Jane McGrath

I can’t take it.

Candace Keynard

- because I have a wonderful hubby, but same history buff as always and today, we actually have a very seemingly dry but quite juicy topic for you guys.

Jane McGrath

That’s right. Today we’re talking about the East India Company, and we should clarify that there are actually a couple of East India Companies and when people – when historians talk about the East India Company, they usually refer to the British, which is what we’re going to focus on but we’re going to talk about the other ones as well.

Candace Keynard

Yeah. So, if you like tea and you love opium, this is the episode for you.

Jane McGrath

Yeah, I think you can say that for sure. To give you some background, what’s really important is that back a few years after Columbus discovered the America’s, the Portuguese explorer, Vasco de Gama, actually discovered a water route to the east India’s on the other side of the world. So, this made it so much easier to travel, it’s faster to travel to the East India’s which had so much – so many commodities that Europe was after, especially spices and if you’ve ever had British food, I mean, it’s not – it’s pretty bland.

Candace Keynard

Sorry British listeners. We do love our fish and chips though.

Jane McGrath

Yeah, but that’s exactly why Europe was so after the East India’s. It had so many good spices and we all know how good they can be.

Candace Keynard

So, Queen Elizabeth, a very enterprising woman, thought I really want a piece of that pie and she came up with a very innovative way in which she could raise enough money, in addition to what was available in the royal treasury, to get a bunch of ships together to go and make a successful trade route for England.

Jane McGrath

That’s right and it’s interesting to note that that the Dutch sort of got a head start on England at this time. Even though they didn’t have their official charter yet, they were doing really well over in the East India’s.

Like I said, they didn’t have an official charter and this was causing a lot of problems back home for them because individual companies would compete each other and flood the market with spices and so the profits would drop and they wouldn’t have enough to fund their – more sea ventures, etcetera, and so England actually took a really smart move, you know, when the London merchants got together and asked Queen Elizabeth for a charter.