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Why Did the East India Company Start Collecting Taxes? - The East India Company's Unplanned Empire | Sleepy Facts About History
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On the last day of 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to a joint-stock company with a monopoly on English trade east of the Cape of Good Hope. For decades, the East India Company operated as a commercial petitioner in a sophisticated and wealthy Mughal Empire, negotiating for access to markets, establishing fortified trading posts, and competing with rival European powers. Yet over the next century and a half, this corporation would accumulate armies, collect taxes, and govern…
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