![]() Although the original voyages were all about sourcing cheap goods to sell back home, the real genius of the company was in the trade it made around Asia and eventually around the world. The Company weren't always big innovators - Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama had arrived in the East Indies over a century before, and they weren't the first to trade in the region - Arab and Chinese traders had been there for centuries and many other European countries had their own trading companies, but the East India company were the first to trade globally on any significant organised scale, and they eventually did it with far more success than anybody else. you showed me nutmegs and nutmeg husks, Ostrich feathers and elephant tusks, Hundreds of tons of costly tea, Packed in wood by the Cingalee, And a myriad drugs which disagree, Cinnamon, myrrh and mace you showed, Golden paradise birds that glowed, And a billion cloves in an odorous mount, And choice port wine from a bright glass fount, You showed, for a most delightful hour, The wealth of the world, and London's power." ![]() The Company warehouses must have been an incredible sight to people at the time - these are the words of John Masefield, Poet Laureate after a visit. The remains of the East India Company warehouses in Devonshire Square - as far as I can tell there's no plaque or marker, the only clue to its history are the smells from the kitchens of a couple of Indian restaurants in the building.
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