French East India Company

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French and other European settlements in India.
French and other European settlements in India.
Maximum extent of French influence 1741-1754
Maximum extent of French influence 1741-1754

The French East India Company (French: La Compagnie française des Indes orientales or Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a commercial enterprise, founded in 1664 to compete with the British and Dutch East India companies.

Planned by Jean Baptiste Colbert, it was chartered by King Louis XIV for the purpose of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere. It resulted from the fusion of three earlier companies, the 1660 Compagnie de Chine, the Compagnie d'Orient and Compagnie de Madagascar. The first Director General for the Company was François Caron, who had spent 30 years working for the Dutch East India Company, including more than 20 years in Japan.[1]

Contents

[edit] History of the Company

The first state-sponsored French voyage to the Indies occurred in 1603, a voyage captained by Paulmier de Gonneville of Honfleur. French king Henri IV authorized the first Compagnie des Indes Orientales, granting the firm a 15-year monopoly of the Indies trade.[2] This precursor to Colbert's later Compagnie des Indes Orientales, however, was not a joint-stock corporation, and was funded by the Crown.

The initial capital of the revamped Compagnie des Indes Orientales was 15 million livres, divided into shares of 1000 livres apiece. Louis XIV funded the first 3 million livres of investment, against which losses in the first 10 years were to be charged.[3] The initial stock offering quickly sold out, as courtiers of Louis XIV recognized that it was in their interests to support the King’s overseas initiative. The Compagnie des Indes Orientales was granted a 50-year monopoly on French trade in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, a region stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan.[4] The French monarch also granted the Company a concession in perpetuity for the island of Madagascar, as well as any other territories it could conquer.

The Company failed to found a successful colony on Madagascar, but was able to establish ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon and Île-de-France (today's Réunion and Mauritius). By 1719, it had established itself in India, but the firm was near bankruptcy. In the same year the Compagnie des Indes Orientales was combined under the direction of John Law with other French trading companies to form the Compagnie Perpétuelle des Indes. The reorganized corporation resumed its operating independence in 1723.

With the decline of the Mughal Empire, the French decided to intervene in Indian political affairs to protect their interests, notably by forging alliances with local rulers in south India. From 1741 the French under Joseph François Dupleix pursued an aggressive policy against both the Indians and the English until they ultimately were defeated by Robert Clive.

The Company was not able to maintain itself financially, and it was abolished in 1769, about 20 years before the French Revolution. King Louis XVI issued a 1770 edict that required the Company to transfer to the state all its properties, assets and rights, which were valued at 30 million livres. The King agreed to pay all of the Company’s debts and obligations, though holders of Company stock and notes received only an estimated 15 percent of the face value of their investments by the end of corporate liquidation in 1790.[5]

Several Indian trading ports, including Pondicherry and Chandernagore, remained under French control until 1949.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Caron lived in Japan from 1619 to 1641. A Collector's Guide to Books on Japan in English By Jozef Rogala, p.31 [1]
  2. ^ Shakespeare, Howard (2001). "The Compagnie des Indes". Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
  3. ^ Shakespeare, Howard (2001). "The Compagnie des Indes". Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
  4. ^ Shakespeare, Howard (2001). "The Compagnie des Indes". Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
  5. ^ Shakespeare, Howard (2001). "The Compagnie des Indes". Retrieved on 2008-03-06.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Boucher, P. (1985). The Shaping of the French Colonial Empire: A Bio-Bibliography of the Careers of Richelieu, Fouquet and Colbert. New York: Garland. 
  • Lokke, C. L. (1932). France and the Colonial Question: A Study of Contemporary French Public Opinion, 1763-1801. New York: Columbia University Press. 
  • Malleson, G. B. (1893). History of the French in India. London: W.H. Allen & Co. 
  • Sen, S. P. (1958). The French in India, 1763-1816. Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay. ASIN B000HINRSC. 
  • Sen, S. P. (1947). The French in India: First Establishment and Struggle. Calcutta: University of Calcutta Press. 
  • Subramanian, Lakshmi, ed. (1999). French East India Company and the Trade of the Indian Ocean: A Collection of Essays by Indrani Chatterjee. Delhi: Munshiram Publishers. 

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

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