The East processes exotic spices quite valuable in the West and the West processes amazing technology much needed in the East. Sounds like a win-win until the inevitable mission creep sets in. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
A nice inspiring portrait of Queen Victoria from the 1850s. Look closely though and you realize it is not British. It is not even a colony nor dominion. The stamp is actually the product of a trading company. I don’t think a modern company of any size would be granted permission to issue what is after all essentially currency in so official a form. The British East India Company was no ordinary company. At it’s height, it controlled over half of the worlds trade. Edit, the pandemic reaction shows that big companies can do anything they want, so I stand corrected.
The stamp today is issue A7, a one half Anna stamp issued by the British East India Company in 1855. It was part of a 10 stamp issue in various denominations featuring a profile portrait of Queen Victoria of Great Britain. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $4.50 used. The green 4 Anna stamp is worth $1750 mint. There is also a version of the 8 Anna stamp cut in half to be used on post covers for 4 Annas that is worth $60,000 used.
The British East India company received a charter from Queen Elizabeth I, and raised money to set up trading with the East. By then, the Portuguese, the Dutch and the French had there own trading companies doing the same thing. The values of spices being such that if a journey was survived a return of 1000% could be realized. A relationship was developed with the Mughal Empire in India that allowed virtually unlimited trading. The riches poured in to the investors of the Company.
This could not last. The rivalries with the other countries over trading posts had come to wars and the company expanded it security force into a full private army with British officers trained to British Army standards in Britain and enlisted men from India that were also trained to British standards. The army grew to more than twice the size of the British army and was the most capable force in Asia.
English pirates raided a Mughal naval vessel returning from the Haj in Mecca. Large amounts of gold and silver were looted and although the East India Company disclaimed responsibility, war broke out with the Mughal empire that resulted in a defeat for the Mughals. Just as spice revenues were falling, administration cost rose. There was a failed attempt to raise tea prices in the American colonies, remember the Boston Tea Party. The smuggling of opium to China increased. Stories in Britain of the frequent plagues and famines in India lead to calls to do more about it. All this lead to a rampant increase in administrative cost that ate up all the profits.
In retrospect the institutions set up to administer India were set up modeled on the British System. The whole education system basically still in use today was set up by a British administrator named Thomas Macaulay. The system taught English and passed on Western ideals. It did nothing to promote local culture or history and therefore Macaulayism is a controversial subject in India today. Two areas that were not interfered with by the company were imposing Christianity and there was British respect for the Indian caste system.
With the profits having turned to losses, the rebellion in the East India Company Army in 1857 was the last straw. The Company was nationalized by Britain, liquidated and the institutions established by the company were taken over by Britain. India would now be a Crown Colony, the beginning of the British Raj. The name and logos of the British East India company were recently acquired in Britain for a chain of clothing stores.
Well my drink is empty and I think I will have a few more while I consider the pros and cons. A point to start was what was the true condition and in what numbers were the the Indian people pre company under the Mughals, who remember were themselves Persian outsiders. At liquidation in 1858, the British bankruptcy judge stated that nothing like this company will ever happen again. Not sure I believe that. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.