French East India Company

The French East India Company (French Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales, mostly short: Compagnie des Indes Orientales) was modeled after the Dutch East India Company established stock-based trading company of the 17th and 18th century, the extensive of the French crown with rights was equipped for maritime trade between France and Asia.

A first time on August 27, 1664 at the initiative of the French finance minister Jean -Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV granted privilege included, among others, the monopoly on trade, ownership of the conquered territories on the right to the equipment of merchant and naval ships and to develop their own troops, the right to strike their own coins as well as its own jurisdiction. 1666 established the Compagnie in belonging to Ploemeur Faouédic, located in the neighborhood of Lorient, a branch.

Geographically, the area of ​​interest of the company extended as established at the Africa, Madagascar and the next offshore islands such as Reunion, the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula and India, the islands of Southeast Asia as well as China and Japan coasts. During her last until the second half of the 18th century commercial activity of the territories were abandoned, such as Madagascar in favor of the Mascarene Islands, while other overseas possessions - like Louisiana and Saint- Domingue - meanwhile added.

Profits, the company generated mainly by imports of non-European luxuries like spices, tea and coffee, herbal drugs, as well as of printed cloths, porcelain and silk.

As director of the Mississippi company John Law merged in 1719, the company with the French West India Company, and so pooled all non-European trading monopolies of France in a conglomerate.