Just how dominant was the East India Company?

by [deleted]

Pretty much the title. How much was it worth? How much of the global market had it cornered by it's height?

mormengil

Not as important as one might think.

East India Co Sales were 7.6m pounds in 1800.

Assets minus debts were 10m pounds in 1800.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company

This compares to British GDP in 1800 of 343m pounds.

UK govt spend in 1800 was 49.5m pounds.

http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/total_spending_1800UKbn

So, East India Company revenue (a total monopoly on all trade from India) was 2% of UK GDP, and 15% of UK government spend in 1800.

At this time, India was just not worth very much compared to the overall UK economy.