East India Trading Company

**The** **East India Trading Company** is an organization from real-world history and which is heavily featured as an antagonist in the *Pirates of the Caribbean* franchise.

## Description

The East-India Trading Company is an amoral organization from real-world history. It was a British mega corporation known for monopolizing trade in not only East India but also throughout Asia, Africa and even the Caribbean. The company was highly lucrative and largely ruled over by blue-blood British aristocrats who came to hold personal armies and legions through the company.

## History

### Real-life

The East India Trading Company was founded in 1600 as, "**Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies**" for English merchants to trade with and exploit India and the East Indies. An amoral imperial business, the company seized control over large portions of Asia and the Indian sub-continent while also operating a variety of trading ports.

By the mid 1700s and into the 19th century, the company controlled half of Earth's trade. In addition to their monopoly over spices, slaves, dye, opium, cotton, saltpetre, and silks, the company acted as an agent of the British empire. The East India Trading Company would control nations such as India starting in 1757 following the *Battle of Plassey* (23 June 1757). In the early half of the 19th century, the company was involved with the First Opium War in which the Chinese government banned the trade of the narcotic opium only for the East India Trading Company to manipulate this for opium trading with China's criminal-underworld/

The evil of the East India Trading Company lead to the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in which the Indian peoples attempted in vain to reclaim independence from the British empire. Following this, the British crown appointed a British raj to rule over India, absolving the trading company of its role in its rulership over the nation. This was followed by financial difficulties leading the company to having been bailed out by the British crown multiple times before dissolving for good in 1874.

### Disney

#### Pirates of the Caribbean (films)

Around 1727, the East India Trading Company expanded to the Caribbean under chairman Lord Cutler Beckett; Beckett's rationality being that the Caribbean was indeed east of India, just, "The long way around". The trading company established themselves in Port Royal, Jamaica where they arrested the governor's daughter Elizabeth Swann and her fiancée William Turner on their wedding day. This arrest was overseen by Beckett due to the two having assisted in the escape of Beckett's rival Jack Sparrow years earlier when he was to be hanged for piracy.

Beckett had ulterior motives for these arrests however, using it as blackmail to have Turner track down Jack to *Isla de Pelegestos* and retrieve Sparrow's magical compass in return for his and Elizabeth's freedom. Sparrow's compass was a mystical object gifted to him by the sea goddess Calypso which pointed to whatever its user desired most on Earth. It is believed that Beckett's intent was to use this compass to track down the Dead Man's Chest, an iron chest holding the beating heart of the god Davy Jones.

Governor Swann later assisted in Elizabeth's escape from Port Royal and while Elizabeth did escape, the governor was caught and arrested by Lord Beckett. In return for his freedom and daughter's safety, Governor Swann was forced into lending his political forces to Lord Cutler Beckett. Before this, Elizabeth stole the letters of mark from Beckett which she forced him to sign before hunting down William and Jack. As it turned out, Jack had hunted down the Dead Man's Chest to relieve himself of a life-debt to Davy Jones while William had also attempted to hunt it down to free the soul of his late-father, bound in Jones' service.

Amidst a fight for the Dead Man's Chest, Jack's crew-mate James Norrington stole the heart from a jar of dirt which Jack had kept it in a jar of dirt. Desiring a pardon, Norrington brought the heart to Norrington in-return for the king's pardon and was given a commission as Admiral in the King's Royal Navy. Using the heart, Beckett forced Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman into service of the East India Trading Company so that they and the British empire could conquer the entire ocean and use the Dutchman to exterminate piracy.

This plan came to a head in the august of 1729 when Beckett used his power in the king's court to be appointed as leader of the British Caribbean under martial law. Beckett ordered mass executions of men, women and children while also eradicating rights to attorney, trials and legal counsel as a means of having them sing a song which would mystically order the assembly of the piratical *Brethren Court*. Beckett desired this as the court was his only true threat remaining in Earth's oceans and with them assembled, he would be able to wipe out the nine remaining pirate leaders on the planet.

However, Beckett's plans went sour when the Brethren Court freed the goddess Calypso from her human form, resulting in a massive storm and maelstrom. Amidst this storm, Davy Jones was able to kill the British officers aboard his vessel and make an attempt to reclaim his heart from the Dead Man's Chest. However, Jack Sparrow also sought after the heart and a sword-fight engaged between the two which Will Turner and the now pirate king of the Brethren Court, Elizabeth Swann also attempted to join. However, Jones stabbed William and killed him only for Jack to use Turner's dead hand holding a blade to stab Jones' heart which killed Davy Jones and resurrected William as the new captain of the Flying Dutchman.

When the storm cleared, Lord Beckett attempted to annihilate the ships of the remaining pirates from his flag-ship only for the Flying Dutchman to turn on him due to being now under the command of Captain William Turner. Beckett's flagship was destroyed and Lord Beckett with it and the further fate of the East India Trading Company remains a mystery.

## Appearances and allusions

### A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas

The company served as antagonists competing with Jack Sparrow for Treasures of Calypso in this attraction.

### The Pirates League

An EITC flag is hung near the entrance to the Pirates League.

### Pirates of the Caribbean

In this attraction is a sign for the East India Trading Company at the mercantina of Puerto Dorado on Isla Tesoro which one of the Auctioneer's men shoot at as a warning-shot for the Wicked Wench's drunken crew.

## Connections

### 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The East India Trading Company played a role in the backstory of Captain Nemo in the book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. In the books, Nemo was originally an Indian prince named Dakkar whose parents participated in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British empire and East India Trading Company. The rebellion came to be unsuccessful and Dakkar's parents were both murdered by the British in the war for Indian Independence. This event left Dakkar with a hatred for colonialism and imperialism in-addition to a general contempt for humanity.

### Fortress Explorations

Sir Francis Drake who was important in the company's founding is an honourable member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers.

### Haunted Mansion

There is a portrait of the Flying Dutchman from folklore in the Haunted Mansion. In folklore, the Dutchman was originally an East India Trading Company vessel.

### Phantom Manor

Big Thunder Mining Company owner Henry Ravenswood had a portrait of the Flying Dutchman from the films within his estate of Ravenswood Manor.

### Pirates of the Caribbean

The East India Trading Company is a major antagonist in the original Pirates of the Caribbean film trilogy. They also are significant in the backstory of Jack Sparrow and his vessel the Black Pearl (the Pearl being the film's counterpart to the Wicked Wench).

### Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

There is an image in this bar showing Jack Sparrow and Trader Sam together on Isla Pelegestos, a trading port for the company.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89ZHefpHiq4