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Posted on 08/13/2010 9:56:20 AM PDT by James C. Bennett
London, England (CNN) -- It was the world's first multinational company, a trading giant during the colonial rule of the Indian subcontinent. This week, The East India Co. is being reborn as a luxury brand -- under Indian ownership.
Sanjiv Mehta, an Indian-born importer and entrepreneur, bought the intellectual property rights to the company in 2005, after they had lain dormant for a century. His goal was to create a global luxury brand.
His dream is realized in a new store off London's high-end Regent Street, where the new East India Co. now sells gourmet tea, chocolate, coffee and gifts.
"Its name has a huge relationship with all that is high-end products," Mehta said.
The East India Co. began as a trading monopoly under Queen Elizabeth I in 1600 to ship commodities to the West from India, China and the Spice Islands, countering the clout of the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese.
The British crown slowly took control of the company's routes, ports, currency and military, becoming the symbol of the British empire.
In 1874, the company ceased trading, prompting an obituary in The Times newspaper now inscribed in a marble table at the new store: "It accomplished a work such as in the whole history of the human race no other company ever attempted, or is ever to attempt in the years to come."
The company's name may also remind some of the illegal opium trade from China, and oppression and wars in India. Mehta, however, sees another side in his native India.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I think this is a GREAT Idea. Good for this guy. I wish him well.
Excellent! Perhaps they can start by exporting enormous quantities of opium to China.
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