How significant was the role of the East India Company in the expansion of overseas trade in the years 1625–88? (B - 2017)

Question 1

East India Company

Answer 1

 From the 1620s the East India Company focused on India, trading successfully in saltpetre, pepper and calico textiles, and opening up trading opportunities on the Indian west coast

Question 2

East India Company

Answer 2

 By the 1640s the East India Company had expanded its successful activities to Basra to develop Persian trade interests

Question 3

East India Company

Answer 3

 The importance of the East India Company was demonstrated in 1672 when it was given the right to mint coins in India. The company also exerted authority over, and protected, English citizens and trading interests in India

Question 4

East India Company

Answer 4

 By the 1680s the company was a popular choice for investors and generated profits equalling or exceeding those of the North American tobacco and sugar trades

Question 5

East India Company

Answer 5

 The significance of the East India Company can be gauged from the fact that it was Britain’s largest joint stock company with three times the capital of the next biggest.

Question 6

other developments

Answer 6

 The development of the lucrative tobacco trade between England and North America in the early seventeenth century

Question 7

other developments

Answer 7

 The Navigation Acts of 1651 and 1660 regulated colonial trade and encouraged mercantilism in ways which benefited English traders and commercial interests

Question 8

other developments

Answer 8

 The importance of British control of the triangular trade (from the mid-17th century) between North America, the Caribbean and Europe based on the profitable slave trade

Question 9

other developments

Answer 9

 The growing economic importance of the Caribbean between 1655 and 1688 based on the development of the sugar trade.