French East Indian Company
The French East India Company's coat of arms. The motto reads Florebo quocumque ferar ("I will flourish wherever I will be brought")
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| Public company | |
| Industry | Trade |
| Fate | Dissolved and activities absorbed by the French Crown in 1769; reconstituted 1785, bankrupt 1794 |
| Founded | 1664 |
| Headquarters | Paris |
The French East India Company (French: Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a commercial enterprise, founded in 1664 to compete with the English (later British) and Dutch East India companies in the East Indies.
Planned by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, it was chartered by King Louis XIV for the purpose of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere. It resulted from the fusion of three earlier companies, the 1660 Compagnie de Chine, the Compagnie d'Orient and Compagnie de Madagascar. The first Director General for the Company was De Faye, who was adjoined by two Directors belonging to the two most successful trading organizations at that time: François Caron, who had spent 30 years working for the Dutch East India Company, including more than 20 years in Japan, and Marcara Avanchintz, a trader from Isfahan, Persia.
French king Henry IV authorized the first Compagnie des Indes Orientales, granting the firm a 15-year monopoly of the Indies trade. This precursor to Colbert's later Compagnie des Indes Orientales, however, was not a joint-stock corporation, and was funded by the Crown.
The initial capital of the revamped Compagnie des Indes Orientales was 15 million livres, divided into shares of 1000 livres apiece. Louis XIV funded the first 3 million livres of investment, against which losses in the first 10 years were to be charged. The initial stock offering quickly sold out, as courtiers of Louis XIV recognized that it was in their interests to support the King’s overseas initiative. The Compagnie des Indes Orientales was granted a 50-year monopoly on French trade in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, a region stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan. The French monarch also granted the Company a concession in perpetuity for the island of Madagascar, as well as any other territories it could conquer.
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