Trading companies - The British Empire

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Noorie Madarbux

To what extend were trading companies responsible for the growth of the British Empire in the years 1680 – 1740?

Apart from just trading companies, other causes in the early years allowed the British Empire to be succesful. Some of this included the Royal Navy, the Wars and the Government.

Trading companies played a vital role in the growth of the British Empire. In whole, trading companies helped create footholds and settlements on various different colonies they owned. These factories and industies were the bases of the goods - which was the source of most profits. They were settled in countries which seemed like they would become major producers and trading in commodities which buyers thought of as new luxuries. There were two key companies that were highly dominant and proved to be succesful in expanding the empire. The Royal African Company began after the failure of The Royal Adventurers of Africa due to interlopers and not rising up to its expected standards. A few months later, the RAC was created and it intended to make a huge amount of profit by using slaves from Africa on their plantations. Slave labour was seen as the best form of labour in those days and their demand was very high. It turned out that this type of trade was highly profitable and the RAC transported a great deal of these slaves around. The RAC didn’t think it was suitable to settle in Africa so forts were built all down the west coastline where they used that as their trading ports. The RAC became a monopoly and its profits and fortunes rose immensly from the other goods (like sugar) they imported too. It wasn’t until twenty six years later, which the RAC realised they had come to the end of their trading ideas. Just like The Royal Adventurers, the company’s profits had been interefered by interlopers and they were put of their business. Although, the RAC had finally ended, it put an end to foreign monoply. By stopping the Dutch and the French trading, it had helped this British company maintain its dominance. The British had supremacy over Africa which simulated exploration for new raw materials and food articles.  This dominance helped bring a vast amount of profits in and therefore help the growth of the British Empire.

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The other key company was The East India Company which was set up in 1600. This company was mainly interested in the spices, the textiles and other Asian commodities and they thought they would be able to make a lot of profit from importing this. They created three trading posts in three main cities (Bombay, Madras and Calcutta). However, the EIC had a major rival who were the Dutch and because of this, it increased the competition for these goods.  This competition meant that the British needed to offer India articles they wanted and needed excluding the wool. They also ...

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