"What is the East India Trading Company doing in the Caribbean?" "Well, we are East of India. Just the long way around. After all, when goods do not cross borders, then armies will." The East India Trading Company, otherwise referred to as the East India Company or abbreviated as EITC, was a British joint-stock company and megacorporation formed for pursuing and monopolizing trade with the Indian subcontinent and East Indies, and later expanded to China and the Caribbean. The East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium. The Company was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600. Shares of the Company were owned by wealthy merchants and aristocrats.