The English East India Company was incorporated in 1600 to trade with India by a Charter given to it by Queen Elizabeth I.. In 1615, the Company built the first factory at Surat with the permission of the then Mughal Emperor Jehangir secured through Sir Thomas Roe, the Ambassador to King James I.
In the beginning, the East India Company had to face the Dutch opposition, the rivalry of the French traders and the declining Mughal rulers of the land. Dupleix, the ablest Governor General of the French possessions in India, wanted to drive the English out of India and to set up a strong empire here. But the arrival of Robert Clive on the scene dashed all his hope. Robert Clive crushed the aspirations of the French by defeating them in different encounters.

The Regulating Act - The rapacity of the officers of the Company forced the British Government to pass the Regulating Act in 1774, the main purpose of which was to give a legalised working constitution to the East India Company's dominion in India.

Pitt's India Act, 1784 - It was a measure for centralisation of the Company under the control of the British Parliament.

It was Lord Wellesley (1789-1805) who made the East India Company the permanent power in India.