During Elizabeth's reign trade and manufactures prospered beyond all former periods in English history. The comforts of life were multiplied and the style of living among all classes greatly improved. Prior to that time the common people lived in houses with dirt floors, no pretense being made to sanitation, and the streets were so filthy that London and many other towns were annually visited during the summer months by an epidemic called the "Plague." But before the end of Elizabeth's reign much of this was changed. Houses began to be built with a view to health and comfort. Tasteful furniture came into use, displacing the rude arrangements of former times, and wealth asserted its presence among the commercial classes as well as among royalty and nobility. The queen's example encouraged a taste for magnificence in apparel. Luxury at table likewise prevailed, and sumptuous habits spread from London to every province of the realm. The Royal Exchange, the most notable commercial emporium in England, was founded at this time and opened by the queen in person. The famous East India Company was chartered by Elizabeth in 1600, and thus was laid the foundation of the vast English empire in India which reached its fruition in the reign of Victoria. This, too, was the Golden Age of literature, and gave to the world Shakespeare, Bacon, Spenser, Ben Jonson, and a host of others who have enriched the world with productions of inestimable value.

The East India Company chartered by Elizabeth in 1600 was the beginning of the system of foreign commerce and coloAn Era of Prosperity nization which has grown to such immense proportions, and made England the great manufacturing and distributing center which she is to-day. This was fashioned after the Dutch East India Company formed about the same time, and was given the exclusive right of commerce with all the countries extending from the Cape of Good Hope eastward to the Straits of Magellan, "except such coasts and islands as might already be occupied by some friendly European state." The government of the company was vested in a governor and board of directors, varying in number at different times and under different statutes. Besides these, local councils, having limited authority over particular territories, were established in Madras, Bombay and Calcutta. The original purpose of the Company was the profits of commerce, but in the exercise of its functions it gradually assumed a governmental character. It began as a purely private corporation of trading merchants, free from governmental direction, but eventually was brought under a "Board of Control" appointed for India, and subjected to home supervision.

This company met with wonderful success from the first, realizing profits from its voyages and the sale of the products of India of fabulous amounts. The Portuguese and Dutch, who had previously become thoroughly established in the trade, opposed by every possible means the encroachments of the English merchants upon Indian territory, but by winning the favor of the Great Mogul with bribes and presents, taking advantage of the quarrels among the petty chiefs and siding with the one most likely to be successful, the company in time gained a firm footing and established agencies and trading posts in various vantage points of the empire. The wealth of India was now poured into the lap of Britain by ship loads. The profits of the company became enormous. Shares of £100 rose in the market to £245, £300 and even £500. Luxurious tastes were created by the introduction of rare commodities. Spices and jewels from India were extensively used, and rare cotton and linen fabrics added to the wearing apparel of the rich. As the use of gunpowder in war increased, there arose an increased demand for nitre which Europe could not satisfy, but the supplies from India were abundant enough to meet all needs, and the profits were large.

The success of the East India Company and the enormous profits which it was realizing from its royal monopoly excited the jealousy of London merchants, with the result that a rival company was formed which set at defiance the exclusive privileges of the authorized company, and fitted out ships for Indian trade. When caught these were treated without mercy as pirates by the East India Company. Nevertheless they continued to struggle for a share of Indian commerce, and in 1698 disputed in Parliament the renewal of the charter of the original company. The result was, a combination of the two companies under the name of the United East India Company, which for a century held despotic sway over England's commerce in the East. During the first half of the seventeenth century the East India Company retained purely a commercial character, but being situated far from the protection of the home government, beyond the watchful supervision of consuls and ambassadors, it became necessary that the company should be able to defend itself and redress its own wrongs. Thus a military character was attached to trading, and forts and garrisons were built.

Owing to the contests between the native princes after the Great Mogul dynasty fell, the French in 1750 undertook to destroy English power in India, and well nigh succeeded, too, but owing to the valor of Lord Clive, formerly a clerk in the company's office at Madras, the French were defeated, the native princes made vassals, and a large part of Indian territory brought under English control. From that time until Napoleon there were more or less of conflicts in India between the English and French, with odds in favor of the former. In 1767 Parliament decided to claim a share in the government of the territory thus acquired, and appointed Warren Hastings first governor-general. Under his administration and those of his successors extensive additions were made to English territory during the next fifty years. Meanwhile the power and commercial supremacy of the United East India Company declined. Its servants committed the greatest extravagances and frequently returned home to England with immense fortunes, while the company itself was frequently in financial difficulties. In 1813 Indian trade was by act of Parliament thrown open to private enterprise, and in 1833 the Company was compelled to abandon entirely its trading character. Its functions continued politically until the Great Mutiny of 1857 gave it the death blow. In 1858 Queen Victoria, by proclamation to the native chiefs and princes, took over the government of India, and in 1877 she formally assumed the title of Empress of India.