What happened to the wealth of the East India Company?

by MesozoicStoic

The East India Company was once by far the most valueable company and adjusted to inflation might have been the most valueable company of all time. Surely the worth of spices and tea have gone down but not all of its assests can be destroyed by a new market situation. So what happened to the riches of the East India Company?

GrannyVenom

The EIC may have been a very vast network of commerce, but it actually had a great deal of financial difficulty over the years until it was finally dissolved in 1874 by the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act of 1873. This wasn't due to a decrease in value of goods but rather repeated issues with the company internally and its interactions with India.

Things really started rolling downhill when a drought struck Bengal in 1769. Instead of intervening or offering any assistance the EIC raised its taxes, and the resulting strain on their credit and shares forced them to ask for a bailout from the British government in 1772.

The EIC tried to recover from their troubles by focusing on one of their largest exports: tea. They were granted the privilege of cutting out the middleman and began exporting the tea straight to the American colonies (the resulting taxes from which led of course to the Boston Tea Party in 1773). The EIC managed to keep itself a float, if only barely, with the combined revenue of the tea and their secret opium smuggling from India to China. However, they finally went belly up when tensions spiked in India with the rebellion of 1857. No longer confident the EIC was worth its expenditures, Parliament stripped the company of its duties and absorbed the assets and forces. The company continued to exist in name only until the Stock Dividend Redemption Act finally shut it down for good.

Source: Bibliography of the East India Company ISBN: 9780712357784

dsuperheld

Does the OP mean Dutch or British EIC?

cantremember568

Can I piggy back and ask what happened to the Dutch East India Company?