British rule in India was originally not a imperial conquest, but a commercial business. The East India Company was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874, formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region. The company controlled large parts of the Indian subcontinent and colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, becoming the largest corporation in the world, with a private army of 260,000 soldiers. Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies", the company rose to account for half of the world's trade during the mid-1700s and early 1800s, particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and opium. This BBC radio play described three scenes from the origins of the East India Company, firstly with the arrival of a privateer in Dartmouth in 1594 loaded with spices attracting the interest of the Queen and traders, secondly the initial meeting to discuss the formation of the Joint Stock Company held by Sir Thomas Smythe in London in 1599, and then the story of the companies first profitable voyage on the Red Dragon under Sir James Lancaster. Lancaster however preferred to fight Portuguese and Dutch ships laden with cargo rather than bothering to trade himself. The short drama was well done and interesting, with some human interest stories to the fore - the Dartmouth greengrocer who provided lock up space for the first spice cargo, the janitor in Leadenhall Street who invested his worldly savings of 7d in the company at it's formation, and the Vicar, Hickson, who chronicled the first meeting and voyage of the company, and whose pious concerns about the morals of Pirates were pushed aside at the prospect of 1000% returns on investments! Written by Fin Kennedy. Cast included Holly Atkins, Kyle Abdullah, Nigel Barratt, Dario Coates, Lucy Phelps and Ben Turner. Other parts were played by Ardeshir Alexandre Sefre, Abraham Popoola, and Salem Zayed. Producer and Director Boz Temple-Morris. First broadcast October 2023.