Why did the Flag of the East India Company have 13 stripes?

by foobar5678

This is the flag:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company#/media/File:Flag_of_the_British_East_India_Company_(1801).svg

It looks remarkably like the Flag of the United States. The 13 stripes on the US flag stand for the 13 original colonies. It that just a coincidence? And if not, what do the stripes on the EIC flag stand for?

Moskau50

You can try asking this in /r/vexillology as well, as they deal with flag symbolism and history.