The East India Company to resume trading - but this time under Indian control

by David Wilkes - 03/08/2010

"It was the paragon of British imperialism, set up to exploit India’s wealth of resources and ending up governing large parts the country in the process."

At its height the East India Company controlled 50 per cent of world trade, bringing tea and coffee to the breakfast tables of the West and spices around the globe.
Now, 136 years after it was dissolved, the business is being relaunched - by an Indian entrepreneur. And, initially anyway, it will be a rather more modest enterprise.
'Custodian': Businessman Sanjiv Mehta is relaunching the historic East India Company brand, which was established in 1600
Mumbai-born Sanjiv Mehta is opening a luxury food shop this month in Mayfair, London, under the historic name - as he takes his first step towards restoring the company to its former glory.
With a nod to the past, the 2,000 sq ft premises will sell a range of teas and coffees, as well as other goods including chutneys, marmalades, mustards and chocolates.
Mr Mehta has been granted permission by the Treasury to use the name and original trademarks of the East India Company.

With the help of wealthy investors, he has ploughed £12 million into the development of the company, which he bought from private investors for a small sum in 2005. The 48 year old, who has lived in London for 20 years, says the reasoning behind it all is that he could never hope to create such a recognisable brand from scratch. ‘I have not created this brand, history has created it,’ he said. ‘I am just the curator of it, a custodian.’

Mr Mehta added that he has suffered no criticism from compatriots for buying the company, saying: ‘People are rejoicing because an Indian has bought the EIC - it is a symbol of redemption.’ The original East India Company was set up in 1600 when Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to a group of pioneering merchants giving them a monopoly of all English trade with Asia. By 1757, it had become a powerful arm of the British establishment with its own armed forces, fleets and currency as well as governing Calcutta, Madras and Bengal.

Its activities remain controversial as it used its private forces to suppress local rulers.

It was also implicated in the seizure of the fabled Koh-i-noor diamond - now the most famous of the Crown jewels - after the capture of Punjab in 1849.
In 1874, the Government of India Act transferred the East India Company powers to the Crown and it effectively ceased to be.
A spokesman for the new version of the company said its original employees from all those years ago were ‘explorers, traders, innovators - they took risks, they broke new ground and they sometimes got it wrong.’

He added: ‘Without The East India Company our world would not be as it is today. It changed the world’s tastes, its thinking, and its people.
‘It created new communities, trading places, cities and shaped countries and commercial routes.

'Singapore and Hong Kong were established by the Company and India was shaped and influenced by it.’
Mr Mehta’s previous business ventures include selling tea wholesale in Russia and promoting consumer products in India.

He also hopes to sell his East India Company products through upmarket UK and US stores and aims to achieve a £6 million turnover in the first year of trading.
Other plans include diversifying into alcoholic drinks which have connections with the history of British Empire, such as India Pale Ale and gin and tonic.


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