Indian Saltpeter Essay

The East India Company’s impact on England: Saltpeter, Tea, and Transcontinental Trade.

The English East India Company played a key role in the formation of Britain as an empire. Through transcontinental trade, the company acquired massive amounts of wealth, that trickled down to merchants, and skilled labourers throughout England. The monopoly granted to the Company on tea and saltpeter allowed the East India Company to assist in transforming Britain’s economy, as well as contributing to the political power of the growing English empire. James Frey’s article The Indian Saltpeter Trade, the Military Revolution, and the Rise of Britain as a Global Superpower outlines the growing importance of saltpeter as a war resource, and the connection

between Indian saltpeter and the growth of the English empire into a world power by the end of the eighteenth century. Patrick O’Brien’s article Inseperable Connections: Trade, Economy, Fiscal State, and the Expansion of Empire, 1688-1815 links the extensive growth of Britain’s economy after The Glorious Revolution to transcontinental trade, which affected the entire population of Britain due to the need for financing, protection, and insurance of cargo from India. The militarization of the East India Company in India lead to India becoming a British colony in 1757; In turn, allowing the Company to bypass Indian merchants, and take advantage of cheap production for tea and saltpeter. P. J. Marshall’s article The British in Asia: Trade to Dominion provides a framework for how The East India Company came to control the area of Bengal in India, and the effects this had on further interactions with rulers in India, as well as the influence this had on the British Empire’s foreign policy towards trading partners. The granting of English troops to the East India Company in order to colonize lands and resources altered how trade was conducted in India.
Saltpeter became an extremely important resource in all of Europe due to the fact that it was needed for manufacturing gunpowder, and virtually all of the saltpeter coursing through Europe made its way out of India.

Europeans couldn't produce saltpeter on large scales like India was able to. The hot and humid conditions of India were perfect for the production of saltpeter, and after the East India Company took care of Dutch and Indian competition, a monopoly was granted to them, and they became the sole exporters, responsible for 70 per cent of the saltpeter being used in Europe. Frey notes that the saltpeter produced in India was of the finest quality due to the natural state in which it was created, and manufactured. He also identifies that saltpeter production in Europe was costly, and expensive, due to peasants and farmers reluctance to give up the resource for free to the Crown. Securing the accommodation of Indian saltpeter is crucial to the Company, and the Crown, as wars rage throughout Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Despite the monopoly, Frey argues that the production of saltpeter was still inconsistent, due to river pirates, unpredictable weather, and price fluctuations resulting from Indian merchants hassling East India Company investors and merchants. Saltpeter helped to not only bolster the English economy, but also provided political power over the rest of Europe, as saltpeter became more and more in demand as various nations went to war with each other. Not only was saltpeter an important wartime resource, but as Frey remarks, it was used in metallurgy, textile production, and soap making, as well as gunpowder becoming an increasingly important resource to miners, fur traders, engineers, hunters, and slave traders, proving that saltpeter had a holistic effect on the formation of the British

Empire.
Near the beginning of the 17th century, in 1617, The Great Moghul Jahangir sent a letter to James I, King of England, extolling the king, and wishing him thanks for gifts received in return for allowing the English to trade. Not only did it appear that a strong, working relationship was formed, the Jahangir also gave the English permission to sell, and buy goods, and be treated with hospitality and security.

Upon which assurance of your royal love I have given my general command to all the kingdoms and ports of my dominions to receive all the merchants of the English nation as the subjects of my friend; that in what place soever they choose to live, they may have free liberty without any restraint; and at what port soever they shall arrive, that neither Portugal nor any other shall dare to molest their quiet; and in what city soever they shall have residence, I have commanded all my governors and captains to give them freedom answerable to their own desires; to sell, buy, and to transport into their country at their pleasure.

As the letter indicates, the English were well received due to Indian rulers being savvy enough to realize that trade with England would profit themselves as well. At this point in time England, Portugal, and the Dutch were all vying for control over the region, but Frey notes that by 1763 the Portuguese were no longer a factor, and the English defeat the French and Dutch East India Company’s in the area of Bengal and sabotage their factories, giving the English East India Company control over the region. At the time, Jahangir, and King James I would have no idea of the impact this allowance of buying and selling would have on India, England, and The East India Company.
In Natasha Glaisyer’s article Networking Trade and Exchange in the Eighteenth-Century British Empire a different understanding of the role India played in the formation of the British empire is undertaken. In Glaisyer’s attempt to bridge the gap between the “small island” of England and the “large empire” of England she notes that its important to think of the empire as a “series of networks”. Glaisyer contrastingly argues that India and England’s relationship functioned on more then just colonial rule, as company servants called “Dubashs” helped East India Company merchants gather information about the manufacturing, and production of resources, as well as disseminating information about the Indian market to Company officials. A process of negotiation, conflict, and compromise was formed between India and The East India Company despite colonial rule being enforced, showing that although colonial rule was a reality in India, English merchants still relied heavily on Indian people in attempts to maximize profits and puncture the Indian market. Through Glaisyer’s article it becomes clear that trade not only kickstarted the English economy, but also had a lasting impact on the conduct of the East India Company, and their foreign policy, as they sought to sell goods on the Indian market in attempts to escalate the acquisition of goods through interacting with Indian middlemen and rulers.
Although transcontinental trade reshaped the English economy and supported the formation of the British empire, “trade… could not be separated from politics”. The militarization of the East India Company initially occurred to protect assets from the French during The Seven Years War; The company asked the Crown for troops, and later would use these troops in order to assert and extend power over Indian rulers, as well as train Indian soldiers to fight in the name of Britain. P. J. Marshall notes that in 1756 relations between the East India Company and the Nawab of Bengal deteriorated, and eventually took a violent turn. The company defeated the Nawab of Bengal at the Battle of Buxar in 1764 and the resulting Treaty of Allahabad gave the East India Company power over Bengal, as well as any provinces connected to it. Marshall reveals that this gave the East India Company a boost of three million pounds, as well as control and influence over the region, showing how the militarization of The East India Company allowed for the extortion of even more profits from India, as well as power. As the East India Company became more politically powerful in India, the relationship shifted from a partnership to a client-based connection.
The importation and distribution of tea in the eighteenth century would have an everlasting impact on culture, politics, and economics in England. The East India Company made immense profits from the trade of tea, and the government benefitted as well from the taxes of this global trade. In The East India Company: A History, Philip Lawson examines the impact of tea and terms it as “profound in every sense”. He also notes that the precision of Company records allows for scholars to follow the expansion of trading activity; By 1757 the company was making over three million pounds per annum from tea alone. Not only did the tea trade from China result in the accruement of wealth, it also transfigured the fabric of English society. Lawson coins it as a “formal social activity,” and the tea trade would spur on the production of pottery-making and table-making to accommodate tea drinkers. Furthermore, distributors took advantage of the popularity of tea and marketed it in newspaper ads, as well as sales catalogues. Thus, tea crept its way into all English men and women's lives, and in the process enhanced the public awareness of The East India Company.
Growing demand throughout England for commodities found in India meant massive profits for the East India Company, who had by the mid eighteenth century taken advantage of a weak and divided Mughal State in India and began to act like a sovereign state, rather then a private company. Patrick O’Brien expresses the notion that in order for this transcontinental trade to take place, a transformation of the workforce in England had to have previously occurred. He points to industrialization and urbanization occurring throughout England in the centuries leading up the East India Company’s involvement in India; which lead to a workforce capable of supporting intercontinental trade. In this regard, it is clear that while the East India Company helped to transform England into an empire, steps taken in the previous centuries allowed for global trade to occur, which in turn greatly impacted England, as well as the lives of it’s citizens. O’Brien maintains transcontinental trade was monumental to English society, as it required ships, sailors, financing, insurance, and protection. The East India Company became integral to facilitating global trade, and were rewarded by monopolies, profit, political power, and the ability to influence English culture.
Saltpeter and tea would prove to have a profound impact on England, as well as the rest of the world. The East India Company’s monopoly of both resources, granted to them by the crown, results in lucrative profits for both the company, and the government, as taxes are extracted from distributors. Transcontinental trade explodes in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, and the East India Company greatly benefits from this, while also influencing global trade. A symbiotic relationship is formed between the Crown and the Company, with both seeing profitable and lucrative results. The Company’s profound impression is felt globally, as India is reshaped by the militarization that is done in the name of facilitating and securing trade and production of goods and resources. The industrialization of England in the preceding years also contributed to the rise in global trade, and as the workforce matured and developed their skills profits were maximized. Whether it was the crown levying taxes on trade, the jobs provided to ship-builders and sailors, the creation of a tea culture, or the eventual colonization of India, The East India Company altered the course of England’s future, and helped facilitate the creation of the British Empire. As Lawson puts it, the East India Company truly had an effect “At all levels of society and day-to-day life”.