 Company flag | |
 | |
Native name | Compagnie française des Indes |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public State-owned enterprise |
| Industry | Trade |
| Founded | 1723 |
| Fate | liquidated 1770 |
| Headquarters | Lorient |
TheFrench Indies Company (French:Compagnie française des Indes orientales) was the main French overseas trading company during most ofLouis XV's long reign in the 18th century. It emerged in March 1723 from the reorganization ofJohn Law's Company following the termination ofJohn Law's giant monetary experiment which the company had channelled. As a delayed consequence of theSeven Years' War, the company's privilege was eventually withdrawn in 1769, and the company was liquidated the next year.[1]: 42
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While born fromJohn Law's Company, the Indies Company kept none of the former's monetary and fiscal role in mainland France. In June-July 1725, a series of royal edicts cleared it of any residual liability for Law's System and confirmed its overseas trading and colonial privileges, except for theAtlantic slave trade towardsSaint-Domingue.[1]: 42
The company developed dynamically, particularly after 1731, thanks to the initiative of comptroller-generalPhilibert Orry who streamlined its ownership structure, governance and portfolio of operations, with a main focus on Asian trade. By then, the king was the company's main owner and appointed its leadership.[2] As part of Orry's restructuring, the company lost its privileges and monopolies in the trade with North Africa (November 1730) and Louisiana (January 1731), but kept them for Canada, Senegal and Guinea.[1]: 42 Its sales oftea,coffee,spices,cotton goods, andsilks increased from 7 million pounds in 1725 to 14 million in 1735 and over 20 million in 1750. By then it had annual sales in the range 21-25 millionFrench livres, similar as those of theBritish East India Company and not very far from theDutch East India Company, its foremost rivals, since the latter's annual revenue was estimated around 30 million livres.[3]
By 1738, the company owned 1,432 slaves, 630 of whom were on the colony ofIsle de France. Many slaves in the colony were imported by the company from theWest African region ofSenegambia; these includedlaptots, enslaved African sailors who served onboard the company's ships.[4]
With the decline of theMughal Empire, the company decided to intervene in Indian political affairs to protect French interests, notably by forging alliances with local rulers in south India. From 1741, underJoseph François Dupleix, it pursued an aggressive policy against both the local rulers and its British rivals, until ultimately defeated byRobert Clive during theSeven Years' War. With theTreaty of Paris (1763), the territories were returned to France.[5]: 15
The company was not able to maintain itself financially. It lost its monopolies on the Canadian beaver fur trade and on trade with Senegal in February 1763, and on trade with Guinea in July 1767.[1]: 42 Its Asian trade privilege was suspended on 13 August 1769,[3] and kingLouis XV required the company to transfer to the state all its properties, assets and rights, which were valued at 30 million livres. The King agreed to pay all of the company's debts and obligations, though holders of company stock and notes received only an estimated 15 percent of the face value of their investments by the end of the corporate liquidation process in 1790.[6]
The Indies Company was granted the right to issue currency in its Indian establishments.
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