French East India Company
The French East India Company ( French Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales , mostly short Compagnie des Indes Orientales ) was modeled after the Dutch East India Company established, share-based trading company in the 17th and 18th century, from the French crown with extensive rights for maritime trade between France and Asia ( India trade ).
A privilege first granted on August 27, 1664 by Louis XIV on the initiative of the French finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert included, among other things, the monopoly on trade, the right of possession over conquered territories, the right to equip merchant ships and warships and to set up their own Troops, the right to strike your own coins and your own jurisdiction . In 1666 the company set up a branch in Faouëdic, part of Ploemeur , in the vicinity of Lorient .
Geographically, the company's area of interest extended to the coasts of Africa , Madagascar and the neighboring islands such as Réunion , the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula and India , the islands of Southeast Asia as well as China and Japan . In the course of their trading activity, which lasted until the second half of the 18th century, individual areas were given up, such as Madagascar in favor of the Mascarene , while other overseas possessions - such as Louisiana and Saint-Domingue - were added in the meantime.
The company generated profits primarily by importing non-European luxury goods such as spices , tea and coffee , herbal medicinal products as well as printed cloths , porcelain and silk .
As director of the Mississippi Company , John Law merged the company with the French West India Company in 1719, thus bundling all of France's non-European trading monopolies into a conglomerate.
literature
- Philippe Haudrère: La Compagnie française des Indes au XVIIIe siècle. 2. Edition, review and corrigée. Les Indes savantes, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-84654-048-9 (two-volume, revised and corrected new edition of Haudrères' dissertation from 1987, first published in 1989 in four volumes).
- Philippe Haudrère: Les compagnies des Indes orientales. Trois siècles de rencontres entre Orientaux et Occidentaux, 1600–1858. Desjonquères, Paris 2006, ISBN 2-84321-083-6 ( Outremer ).
- Philippe Haudrère, Gérard Le Bouëdec: Les compagnies des Indes. Ouest-France, Rennes 1999, ISBN 2-7373-2169-7 (richly illustrated, easily understandable introduction).
- Paul Kaeppelin: La compagnie des Indes orientales et François Martin. Études sur l'histoire du commerce et des établissements français dans l'Inde sous Louis XIV (1664–1719). = Les origines de l'Inde française. Challamel, Paris 1908 (also: Paris, Univ., Thèse, 1908).
- Jürgen G. Nagel : The adventure of long-distance trading. The East India Companies. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2007, ISBN 978-3-534-18527-6 .
- Donald C. Wellington: French East India companies. A historical account and record of trade. Hamilton Books, Lanham MA 2006, ISBN 0-7618-3475-3 .
Web links
- Musée de la Compagnie des Indes - Website of the Museum of the French East India Company in Lorient .
Individual evidence
- ^ Danièle et Jean-Claude Clermontel: Chronologie scientifique, technologique et économique de la France , page 84 (French), accessed on August 26, 2011