A number of things contributed to the end of the East India Company. It acquired control of a place called Bengal in India in 1757, and, as the company was an agent of the British, its shareholders were able to change British policy there. This eventually led to lots of corruption and the government had to step in.
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The Regulating Act and the India Act established government control of political policy. The company’s commercial monopoly was broken in 1813, and from 1834 it slowly faded away. Another famous monopoly was the American Tobacco Company. This one was organized in the late 1800s a guy named James Duke, a member of W. Duke, Sons and Company of Durham. The Dukes’ Durham operation was already a leader in the emerging business of cigarettes. The new American Tobacco Company allied five other large existing tobacco companies, one of which was W. Duke, Sons and Company, and from the moment this alliance was formed, the American Tobacco Company possessed a complete monopoly on sales of manufactured cigarettes. By 1908, when the government began the federal lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court decision to apply the Sherman Act. The Sherman Act is landmark 1890 U.S. legislation which banned monopolies and cartels to increase economic competitiveness. One of the most famous monopolies is the standard oil monopoly. This company was run by John D Rockefeller and some other dudes who were operating two oil refineries in Cleveland, who at the time was the major oil refining center in the country. The partners called their business the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller, who was a ruthless businessman formed a plan to give Standard Oil an edge over the competition. Rockefeller secretly arranged for discounted shipping rates from the Vanderbilt railroad company to carry all the crude oil to Standard’s refineries in Cleveland and kerosene to the big city markets. Some people argued that railroad companies should not discriminate in their shipping charges. Small businesses were often forced to pay more than big shippers like Standard Oil. The oil industry in the late 1800s experienced a sudden boom, which led to wildly rising prices and price wars began among the refiners. Rockefeller wanted complete control the oil market to make his empire complete. Rockefeller used his deal with the railroad to control other oil companies railroad rates to intimidate and even bully 20 other Cleveland refiners to sell out to Standard Oil at extremely low prices. This was known as the Cleveland Massacre” ended in March 1872 and standard controlled 25 percent of the U.S. oil industry. By 1880, the controlled 90 percent. The East India Company was started by royal charter on December 31, 1600. The East India Company was initially created in 1600 to serve as a trading body for English merchants, specifically to participate in the East Indian spice trade. It later added such items as cotton, silk, indigo, tea, and opium to its product and also participated in the slave trade transportation. It was a company formed for the exploitation of trade with East and Southeast Asia and India. Although it started as just a trading body, it got involved in politics and soon acted as an agent of the British in India from the early 18th century to the mid 19th century. A number of things contributed to the end of the East India Company. It acquired control of a place called Bengal in India in 1757, and, as the company was an agent of the British, its shareholders were able to change British policy there. This eventually led to lots of corruption and the government had to step in. The Regulating Act and the India Act established government control of political policy. The company’s commercial monopoly was broken in 1813, and from 1834 it slowly faded away. Another famous monopoly was the American Tobacco Company. This one was organized in the late 1800s a guy named James Duke, a member of W. Duke, Sons and Company of Durham. The Dukes’ Durham operation was already a leader in the emerging business of cigarettes. The new American Tobacco Company allied five other large existing tobacco companies, one of which was W. Duke, Sons and Company, and from the moment this alliance was formed, the American Tobacco Company possessed a complete monopoly on sales of manufactured cigarettes. By 1908, when the government began the federal lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court decision to apply the Sherman Act. The Sherman Act is landmark 1890 U.S. legislation which banned monopolies and cartels to increase economic competitiveness. One of the most famous monopolies is the standard oil monopoly. This company was run by John D Rockefeller and some other dudes who were operating two oil refineries in Cleveland, who at the time was the major oil refining center in the country. The partners called their business the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller, who was a ruthless businessman formed a plan to give Standard Oil an edge over the competition. Rockefeller secretly arranged for discounted shipping rates from the Vanderbilt railroad company to carry all the crude oil to Standard’s refineries in Cleveland and kerosene to the big city markets. Some people argued that railroad companies should not discriminate in their shipping charges. Small businesses were often forced to pay more than big shippers like Standard Oil. The oil industry in the late 1800s experienced a sudden boom, which led to wildly rising prices and price wars began among the refiners. Rockefeller wanted complete control the oil market to make his empire complete. Rockefeller used his deal with the railroad to control other oil companies railroad rates to intimidate and even bully 20 other Cleveland refiners to sell out to Standard Oil at extremely low prices. This was known as the Cleveland Massacre” ended in March 1872 and standard controlled 25 percent of the U.S. oil industry. By 1880, the controlled 90 percent.
