East India Company, French definition of East India Company, French in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

East India Company, French, 1664–1769, commercial enterprise planned by Jean Baptiste Colbert and chartered by King Louis XIV for the purpose of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere. It failed to found a colony on Madagascar but established ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon and Île-de-France (now Réunion and Mauritius). By 1719 the company had established itself in India but was near bankruptcy. In that year it was combined under John Law Law, John, 1671–1729, Scottish financier in France, b. Edinburgh. After killing a man in a duel (1694) he fled to Amsterdam, where he studied banking. Returning to Scotland (1700), he proposed to Parliament plans for trade and revenue reforms and published
..... Click the link for more information. with other French trading companies to make the Compagnie des Indes (see Mississippi Scheme Mississippi Scheme, plan formulated by John Law for the colonization and commercial exploitation of the Mississippi valley and other French colonial areas. In 1717 the French merchant Antoine Crozat transferred his monopoly of commercial privileges in Louisiana to
..... Click the link for more information. ). It resumed independence in 1723. With the decline of the Mughal Mughal (m
..... Click the link for more information. empire, the French found it necessary to intervene in Indian political affairs to protect their interests. From 1741 the French under Joseph François Dupleix Dupleix, Joseph François (zhôzĕf` fräNswä` düplĕks`)
..... Click the link for more information. pursued an aggressive policy against both the Indians and the English until they ultimately suffered defeat by Robert Clive Clive, Robert, Baron Clive of Plassey (plăs`ē), 1725–74, British soldier and statesman.
..... Click the link for more information. . Despite its apparent success, the French company had never been able to maintain itself financially, and in 1769 it was abolished.