English East India Company Chartered
December 31, 1600
In the dying hours of the year Elizabeth I granted a monopoly on Eastern trade to a syndicate of London merchants with two hundred investors and six ships. The East India Company would begin as pepper traders and end, two centuries later, as the ruling bureaucracy of a subcontinent, commanding armies larger than most European states.
In context
Also in 1600 (6 other events on record)
- Battle of Sekigahara · East Asia · War
- Shakespeare Writes Hamlet · Europe · Culture
- Giordano Bruno Burned in Rome · Europe · Religion
- Matteo Ricci Reaches Beijing · East Asia · Religion
- William Gilbert Publishes De Magnete · Europe · Science
- Dutch Ship Liefde Reaches Japan · East Asia · Exploration
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Politics
Era
Renaissance (1501–1650), one of 715 events from that era on Saeculum.