The Story Of The Most powerful Company (East Indian Company) In History

The status of East India Company officials in India

image resources : Pixabay.com

Today, you tell the story of the world's most powerful company. The name of this company was 'East India Company'. Who ruled a large part of the world including India for a long time. Which had an army of millions. Was his intelligence agency. Who had the right to collect tax.
Today, there are multinational multinational companies in the world, such as Apple or Google. But all these companies do not stop in comparison to the East India Company.
The East India Company was formed in the year 1600. At that time, Elizabeth I was the Queen of Britain. Who gave the East India Company an open leeway to do business in Asia. But time took such a turn that this company became a government instead of a business.
There was a time that there were many countries in Asia under the occupation of East India Company. This company had large ports like Singapore and Penang. The East India Company laid the foundation of metros like Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. This was the biggest means of employment in Britain.

East India Company employees hauling tea at the port
In India, this company had an army of more than 2.5 lakh people. It was not only England but it used to interfere in the lives of people of all countries of Europe. People used to drink tea from the East India Company, and they wore clothes from the East India Company.

But, how was this company after all? Was its headquarters like the magnificent offices of companies like Google or Facebook today. How much did its employees get paid?
Let's turn the pages of history and find answers to these questions.
In his era, people used to compete to get jobs in East India Company. But it was very difficult to get a job. Anyone got a job when a director of the company recommends his name. Most of the men used to work in the company. Women were kept only for cleanliness.
Documents of the East India Company are kept in the British Library. Margaret Makepeace takes care of them. Margaret says that even for the small work of the company, the job was received only on the recommendation of the director.

There were a total of 24 directors in the company. The jobs used in the company were many times more than those used to be. If the director did not recommend, then no one could get a job.
Recommendation was also required for the job of scribe or writer in the company's headquarters in London. Who got the job depended on who made the recommendation. Due to more connections than qualified, jobs were available.
To get a job in East India Company, only with the recommendation did not work. The company had to pay for this, at that time about five hundred pounds, which today is about 52 thousand dollars or about thirty three lakh rupees. The larger the position, the more guaranteed money had to be given. Apart from this, good behavior had to be guaranteed to the employees.
Today, working without salary or paying for work is considered very bad. Some companies have to pay compensation for this.
But a career in the East India Company was started with a job without money. At first, you had to work for five years without salary. But in 1778, this period was reduced to three years.

New East India House built in 1850 at Leadenhall Street
After working for free for many years, the company used to start paying ten pounds of wages. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the company itself realized that it would not be good for the company to give jobs only to those who brought the recommendations.
The company started East India College in 1806 to prepare its employees. In this college located in Helbury, the company's munis-babus were trained. Here, employees were also given training in Hindustani, Sanskrit, Persian and Telugu languages ​​along with history, law and literature.
Today, examples are given in the world of great headquarters of Facebook and Google. After all, what would have been like, the headquarters of the world's largest company, the East India Company?
The headquarters of the East India Company, based in London, was certainly not like today's Facebook and Google headquarters. But according to its era it was very spectacular. The company's headquarters in London's Leidenhaul area was rebuilt in 1790. On its door, a statue of King George Third of England was warring.

A factory of the East India Company at Surat in 1680
The interior of the building was no less than a palace. There were glowing halls and rooms with stones planted from all over the world. There were also pictures of the company's occupied cities. Goods won in the war were also displayed loudly at the company's headquarters. Somewhere there was an idol of lion hunting, somewhere silk and somewhere, gold-studded Tipu Sultan's throne.
The company had several warehouses in London, which were as luxurious as the company. These were made with a view to exerting pressure on the people of England. Very big and fantastic.
Today, many companies provide bases for their employees to take naps. But the East India Company also used to arrange for the employees to stay in their era. Many employees lived in its London office compound. Some people had to pay for this. So some people used to get this facility for free. Those using the company's facilities were severely punished.
Those working in offices outside the company of England were also allowed to stay. Employees were always in the eyes of their seniors. Discipline was strict. Employees were incarcerated for misbehaving by drinking alcohol.

There were different types of hideouts of East India Company abroad. Just like there was a church, library and hamam along with the company's factory in Surat. At the same time, there were gardens in Hirado, Japan, and there were also swimming pools.
Food was also served to those working in the East India Company. As soon as the staff came to the office, they were served breakfast. People were given food in company bases abroad. However, this facility was discontinued in 1834 in the name of spending cuts.
In 1689, the British clergyman John Owington, who visited the Surat factory, wrote that there were an Indian, an Englishman and a Portuguese cook. It was intended that everyone should get the food of their choice. People were provided both non-vegetarian and vegetarian food.
The variety of food used to increase on Sunday. There was a lot of emphasis on dry fruits like pistachios, almonds and raisins. There was a great welcome from a well-known personality coming from outside. A lot of money was spent on this.
Alcohol was freely provided to the people of the East India Company. In Sumatra, Indonesia, 19 employees of the company had dumped 894 bottles of wine, 600 bottles of French wine, 294 bottles of Burton ale, two pipes and 42 gallons of maderia, 274 bottles of chadis and 164 gallons of Gorak arrack.

A picture of the 'East India Docks' of London in 1808
When the company came to know about this, he tried to know whether the employees were fighting among themselves by drinking so much alcohol.
The East India Company had opened a small pub in the port of London. In which beer and wine were sold with strict conditions. The company also had its own prison in London.
Today, all companies provide various facilities to their employees. If someone gives a foreign travel coupon, then a company distributes concert tickets for free.
Similarly, the East India Company used to allow its employees going abroad to do their business separately. They were also allowed to bring their personal belongings on the ship of the company and bring them home. This was a much bigger concession than today's tour packages or concert tickets.
Such concessions used to give a good amount of benefit to an employee. With the earnings made in any one foreign tour, not only the life of the employees of the company but also the life of the coming breeds was made. At the same time, the company had to spend less money as salary and bonus.

Entertaining officers of East India Company by dancing and singing
Employees of the company were allowed to take part in the business of their own company's stock. It was a good deal. Employees had more information than ordinary people. He used to take advantage of this during the buying and selling of shares.
The officers of the East India Company used to throw a lot of money in the name of entertainment. For example, in the nineteenth century, some employees of the company had made a dinner of about twenty thousand dollars. The chairman of the company used to get one lakh thirty-two thousand pounds every year just to entertain him.
In 1834 these expenses were cut. But in 1867, Sir John Kay, an officer of the company wrote that no one gives a good dinner to the company. The same kind of gratitude was also given to the foreigners. The captain of a factory used to get about thirty three thousand pounds for dinner only.
Foreign employees often received expensive gifts, such as jewelry, silk clothes. Also, people like zamindar, nawab used to give expensive gifts to these employees.
The East India Company has seen both good and bad times in its long history. There were also allegations of corruption and rigging and bad management. After 1764, the company had prohibited the gift of more than a special price.

THE PRINT COLLECTOR ALAMY
In 1790, the East India Company officials saw the battle of the rooster.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, employees of the East India Company were among the highest paid people. The more time someone spent in the company, the more his salary was.
In 1815, the clerk's salary used to start from 40 pounds a year, or about 29 thousand pounds today. After working eleven to fifteen years in the company, this salary used to increase more than five times. By 1840, the salary of the clerk of the East India Company was twelve times more than a common laborer.
Apart from this, the East India Company also used to give a sizeable pension to its employees. Those working for forty years used to get three quarters of salary as pension. At the same time, a servant working for fifty years was given a pension equal to salary.
Unlike the general employees, the directors of the East India Company used to get less money. They did not get the same salary as today's CEO. However, it was sometimes bribed and sometimes gifted. Because these directors used to have very good rights.
If all the benefits are added, then the amount received by the directors of the East India Company at that time was equal to the salary of today's expensive CEO.

THE ART ARCHIVE ALAMY
Employees of the East India Company enjoyed a lot of holidays.
Today, companies give their employees holidays in many ways. But the East India Company had to spend a lot of time for the holidays. The leave of any employee had to be approved by the Board of Directors. It is another matter that in those times there were more government holidays than today.
However, in 1817, there was a huge cut in government holidays. Employees were allowed only Christmas vacation. Also, employees were being given leave for one to four days according to their year of work.
In the East India Company, people had to work for twelve to thirteen hours daily. From seven in the morning to eight in the night. There was a discount of two hours for lunch in between. People also had to work on Saturday.
However, due to not being strict in supervising the employees, many people also took advantage of this. For example, in 1727, the directors came to know that an employee named John Smith had not been working for 16 months and was getting salary.
Those working in the company's warehouses had to work only for six hours a day. There was a break of half an hour in this too. At the same time, the working hours in Bandargahs ranged from ten to twelve.

hERITAGE IMAGE PARTNERSHIP LTD ALAMY
In 1760, an officer of the East India Company was drinking hookah in the Mughal court.
It was easy to work in factories abroad. People used to work comfortably. There was a good balance between work and rest.
Today only half of the people in America are satisfied with their jobs. At the same time, only 43 percent of people in France and 34 percent in Germany are happy with the job.
Think, what did people think about their jobs two hundred years ago? How satisfied were the employees of the East India Company with their jobs.
Life was difficult for those employees of the East India Company, who had to travel abroad. Accidents, diseases, war, all of them were at risk of being put to death. According to an estimate, half the employees of East India Company deployed in Asia had to die during their jobs.
At the same time, employees working in England were bored with their jobs. Some used to get so bored that they did not work at all.
In this regard, an employee of the company, Charles Lamb, wrote a letter to the English poet William Wordsworth and openly expressed his boredom. Despite being bored with his job, he worked three years more and took pension for eight years.

GRANGER NYC ALAMY
A portrait of Thomas Love Peacock, an officer and poet of the company in 1857.
It is clear from these things that the East India Company was a multinational company, but not an MNC like today. It had power, money, army, spy department. It established the British rule in many countries including India.