The East India Company was the first multinational corporation. One can draw many management lessons from it. This article discusses some of the management lessons that one can learn from the East India Company.

The origin of the multinational corporation dates back to the 17thcentury when major chartered companies1 of colonial powers extended their operations in countries under the control of their respective governments. The EIC, which was established in 1600, monopolized trade with the East Indies and India. According to Micklethwait and Wooldridge (2003:17) the period saw the emergence of some of the most remarkable business organizations the world has ever seen.

The history of the EIC dates back to September 1599 when a group of 80 merchants and adventurers sent a petition to Elizabeth I to set up a company to trade with the East Indies. The group also elected 15 directors. In December 1600, the merchants were granted a Charter which gave them a monopoly over 15 years of trade to "The East Indies, the countries and ports of Asia and Africa and to and from all the islands' ports, towns and places of Asia, Africa and America and any of them beyond the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan."

By 1611, the EIC had made its 10thvoyage and earned a return of around 150% on its shareholders' capital of around £46,000. Encouraged by the success the EIC then started financing more than one voyage at a time. The company soon routinized 16-month long voyages. The cargo included lead, tin, mercury, corals, ivory, armor, swords, satins and broadcloths. These were exchanged for cotton textiles in India which was sold in the Spice Islands (Indonesia) for pepper, cloves, and nutmeg.

East India Company, Business House, Britains Economic history, multinational corporation, lead, tin, mercury, corals, ivory, armor, swords, satins and broadcloths, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, shareholders, Straits of Magellan, merchants and adventurers, monopoly, business organizations, monopolized trade, colonial powers, management lessons.