John Company

John Company was the informal English nickname for the Honourable East India Company, the chartered British trading corporation founded by royal charter on 31 December 1600. It held a monopoly on English trade with the East Indies, maintained its own fleet of East Indiamen and a private army, and governed large parts of India until the Government of India Act 1858 transferred its territories to the Crown after the 1857 rebellion. The origin of the byname is uncertain; it long predates the company’s dissolution in 1874.