The Commercial Conquest: Transformative Impact of the East India Company on Indian Trade and Commerce

Abstract

This paper examines how the East India Company (EIC) fundamentally altered Indian trade and commercial structures during its operations from 1600 to 1858. Through analysis of colonial economic policies, commercial monopolies, and forcible market integration, this study demonstrates that the EIC initiated a profound transformation of India's indigenous commercial systems. Drawing on historical accounts, trade records, and contemporary scholarship, this analysis reveals that while the EIC introduced new commercial infrastructure and global market connections, it simultaneously dismantled self-sustaining economic systems, redirected trade flows toward British interests, and implemented extractive policies that fundamentally reshaped India's commercial identity. The long-term consequences included deindustrialization in key sectors, structural transformation of agricultural production, and the reorientation of Indian commerce toward imperial priorities changes that continued to influence Indian economic development well beyond the formal colonial period. This research contributes to ongoing scholarly discourse concerning the economic legacies of colonial commercial enterprises and their lasting impact on postcolonial economies.