The Isle of Wight and the East India Company, 1700-1840: some connections considered

On 31 December 1600 from the Company of Merchants of London trading into the the East Indies received a charter from Elizabeth I. Consisting of 218 subscribers and financing one voyage to the East, the venture was set to become Egland's greatest trading enterprise. Eventually responsible for running its own army, navy and bureaucracy, it would be instrumental in the foundation and subsequent promotion of the British Empire. It would run its own social welfare system, a system that was light years ahead of its time, and would administer territories in India almost as fiefdoms through a series of impressive satraps such as Robert, Lord Clive and Warren Hasting. To its credit, the Company has been well served by historians. As a result much is now known about activities in the East, of the policy of 'forts and factories' annd of the company's extensive influence in London. Involvement in eighteenth-century politics, the Company's sales and its army, as well as the careers of Clive and others, have all been researched at length