Companies Timeline
Year
1600
1602
1609
1616
1619
VOC
In Surat
In Surat
Batavia
founded
Settlement in
Madras
Take
Malacca
from the
Portuguese
1657
1658
1659
First public
tea sales in
London
Take
Colombo
and
Negapatam.
Coffee
planted in
Ceylon
Take
Padang
(Sumatra)
1661
1662
Charles I is
given
Bombay
New EIC.
Charter
Forced to
leave
Formosa.
1663
1664
1666
1667
French
VOC
founded
1640
1641
EIC
EIC founded
First mention
of Tea in the
registers
First load of
coffee from
Moka
arrives in
England.
Foundation of
the CRIO
Lorient
founded
François Caron
in Surate
Danish
Swedish
Other
1668
1672-78
1674
1680
1681
1682
1683
1685
1687
1688
1690
1693
1697
1698
Charles I
gives Bombay
to the EIC
Franco-Dutch War (1672-78)
(Anglo-French Coalition)
Settle in
Pondicherry
Allow
Country
trade to
servants
Settle in
Balassor
Take
Allow private
Bantam
trade.
(Java) from
Trade is
England.
increasingly
Start of the
conducted by
Javanese
St-Malo
Wars (82merchants.
84)
Take Cochin
from the
Portuguese
First voyage
French
to China
Embassy to
Siam.
Reorg of the
company
87-90: John
Textile
Child fails
Disputes in
against the
France
Moghul
War of the League of Augsburg (1688-97)
Settle in
Calcutta
Settle in
Chandernagor.
Lose
Pondicherry to
the Dutch.
Peace of Ryswick
Second
Company is
Company is
largely
founded.
defunct.
Private South
Sea and China
Companies
take over.
First ship sent
Second
foundation
of the
Company
to China
(returns in
1700)
Dutch return
Pondicherry
1699
1700
1702
1706
1708
1711
1713
1714
1715
1717
1719
1720
Calcutta seat
of new
Presidency.
War of the Spanish Succession (1702-14)
First ‘Coffee
Fort in
House’
Pondicherry
serving tea in finished
London
(Thomas
Twining)
Companies
Company is
united into
bankrupt.
the UEIC.
Admin seat
changed
from Surat to
Bombay
Coffee
introduced
in Java
Treaty of Utrecht
Treaty of Rastadt
Coffee
introduced to
Ile de Bourbon
Get tax
privileges for
Bengal
Law Company
Settle in Moka
(St-Malo ppl
there since
1708)
Ostend
traders
begin
sending
ships with
individual
letters
patent
from
Emperor
Charles VI
or Prince
Eugene
(governor
gen of
Brussels)
Company
reorganisation
(and again
with the death
of the Regent)
Settle in Mahé
(Malabar)
1721
1722
1723
1724
Creation of
the Ostend
Company
Tax on tea
changed to
general tax
on
consumption
Leave Surate.
Begin to build
fortifications
in Pondicherry
1727
1731
1732
1733
1736
1739
1740
1741
1744
1746
1748
Ostend
Company
suppressed
Settle in
Yanaon
(Circas)
Swedish
Company
founded.
New Danish
Company
founded
Auctions
moved from
Nantes to
Lorient
Get the right
to coin money
in Pondicherry
Sack of Delhi by Nadir Shah
Pondicherry
under siege by
Mahrattes
Dupleix
becomes
governor in
India
War of the Austrian Succession (44-48)
Carnatic Wars (1746-63 with pauses)
Pondicherry
bombarded by
admiral
Boscowen.
Loss of 31
ships during
the war.
New Company
Statutes.
1754
1755
1756
1757
1761
1763
1764
1765
1769
Prussian
Company
founded
Gournay
Mémoire
against the
Company
Seven Years War (56-63)
Black Hole of
Calcutta
Calcutta
retaken by
Clive.
Plassey
Lally
capitulates in
Pondicherry.
City destroyed
by the English
Treaty of Paris
Company
reorganisation
Get the
diwani for
Bengale,
Bihar, and
Orissa
Monopoly
disputes
(Morellet,
Dupont de
Nemours, and
Necker).
Loss of
Monopoly,
Company
functions only
as licensing
bureau
1770
Triest
Company
founded
1772
1773
Danish
Company
loses its
monopoly
Tea Act &
Regulating
1774
1782
1784
1785
1789
1792
1793
1794
1795
1796
1798
Act
Clive’s
suicide
EIC takes Calicut from the
French
Anglo-Dutch Treaty
Commutation
Act, India Act
Calonne
Company
founded
(monopoly
company
again)
Beginning of
French
Revolution –
loss of
monopoly in
1790
French Revolutionary Wars
Charter
French
renewed.
Company
Ships opened completely
to private
abolished
trade.
EIC take Malacca from the
Dutch
EIC take Cochin from the
Dutch
VOC
abolished
First
American
Ship
(Empress
of China)
arrives in
Canton