Thread by @j_bindra

Yesterday, I had one of my most interesting visits and meetings, with the owner of the #company that virtually created #capitalism !!

Interested to know more? See the thread🧵

@TheEastIndia Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia), and later with Qing China.

The company seized control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonized parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong after the First Opium War, and maintained trading posts and colonies in the Persian Gulf
The rest, as they say, is history.

Cut to early 2000, when Indian business @SanjivMehta1600 actually bought out the East India Company ‘from 30 to 40 owners’, in a burst of patriotic fervor, and has built it up into a luxury business selling teas, coffees, chocolates, other fine foods and #gin !

Their flagship showroom is in Conduit Street, London, which I visited yesterday. I learnt so many amazing things from Sanjiv. For example the word 'cash' came from the currency issued by the EIC, the currency was called 'cash' ! The EIC also owns the words ‘mohur’ and guinea!!

In 2013, famously, the @MahindraRise and @anandmahindra bought a minority stake in the East India Company, bringing two iconic companies together!
business-standard.com/article/compan…

Lovely meeting one of the most dynamic entrepreneur owning a storied company with so many interesting stories; he is also one of the most tech-friendly CEOs I have met. He knows more about #NFTs , the #Metaverse and #web3 than most people I know!

Do drop into their store at Conduit Street, off #RegentStreet and just a couple of minutes walk from
#oxfordcircus Tube station, or visit them at theeastindiacompany.com