Question

5. What was the main difference between the English and the French East India companies?​

Answer 1

Answer:

The English (later British) East India Company was responsible to the British Parliament. The French Company had no such legislature to answer to. The French Company had difficult gaining support from French merchants; the British Company had no such problems.

Answer 2

The main difference between the English East India Companies and French East India Companies are:-

1. Britain and French were vastly different nations politically. Britain was a constitutional monarchy, France was an absolute monarchy. This meant that there were legal differences in who/what the companies were responsible to. The English (later British) East India Company was responsible to the British Parliament. The French Company had no such legislature to answer to.

2. The French Company had difficult gaining support from French merchants; the British Company had no such problems. Despite being un-influential until the late Stuart period, the British Company had more funding, both from its shareholders and from the British state. In the case of the French Company, Louis XIV himself was the biggest investor.

3. The British East India Company was able to increase in power, particularly after the Restoration in 1660. The French Company, meanwhile, didn’t fare so well. Financial difficulties meant that, after a brief flowering period, the French Company made little money and by 1680 many ships were in need of repair.

4. The French Company was revived, while

the British one was not. The revived French Company gained access to the trading port of Mahé in Malabar, India, in 1724. By 1740 its trade value was half that of the British Company and it was ultimately defeated in the ensuing Seven Years’ War (1756–63). Pondicherry, the capital of French India, was captured in 1761.

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