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| The
English East India Company: Trading Places |
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By 1690 the
Company had factories along the West and East coasts
of India. The main centres were at Madras, Calcutta
and Bombay. The company started to protect its trade
with its own armies and navies - very unlike most companies
today. London also became an important trading centre,
where goods were imported (brought in), exported (shipped
out) and re-exported (transferred from one country to
another). The company would have liked to pay for all
its import goods with silver, but traders in England
wanted them to export English goods.
English and
Chinese sea merchants had first met at the markets in
Bantam - a long way from either country. The company
wanted to trade directly with China but it was not until
1699 that the Chinese allowed the company to trade at
Canton.
From China,
the company bought tea, silk and porcelain. The Chinese
wanted silver in return. Over the next 100 years tea
became a very popular drink in England and there was
a fear that too much silver was leaving the country
to pay for it. To stop this happening, the company became
involved in a triangular trade by smuggling opium (a
drug) from India into China. They were paid in silver
for opium and used this to buy tea. This was a very
dangerous thing to do because opium was banned in China.
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