Research On The Influence Of Botanical Knowledge On British East India Company

The British East India Company(BEIC)was one of the most influential business groups in history,Many former researches embarked from the perspective of Business and politics,rarely from scientific perspective.Domestic research in this area is particularly weak.In fact,most commodities were plant products before the industrial revolution,such as spices,tea,sucrose and quinine,Botany was closely related to the development of the BEIC.Studying this issue from the perspective of the relationship between science and business is not only beneficial to research of the history of botany and the BEIC,but also opens up new research paths.Survival was the primary problem faced by the BEIC when it was first established,the colonists who first arrived in the East faced problems such as climate sickness.The BEIC used knowledge of botany to ensure them healthy,and vigorously transformed the colonial environment to make it more conducive to the survival and development of the colonists.Botanists rely on their professional knowledge to serve the local princes,gain some power and work for the BEIC.These measures enable the BEIC to establish a local foothold,and thus have the ability to engage in economic activities.More importantly,botanical knowledge has effectively helped the BEIC expand its trade.Botanists seek and develop the Plant commodities of the colonies,and bringing continuous profits to the company;The invention of Ward case successfully made the trans-regional transplanting and cultivation of precious plants and broke the monopoly of other countries.Precious plants such as the Cinchona tree were transplanted into the company’s plantations,bringing untold wealth,especially the trans-regional cultivation of Chinese tea.Because for BEIC,involving Britain,India and China,triangular trade with tea and opium as core commodities is the most important,But after the Opium War and the cancellation of trade privileges,the triangle trade crisis began,and tea production was firmly controlled by China.So,the BEIC appointed horticulturist Robert Fortune to steal the best tea from China and cultivating it in India,solving the trade crisis and optimizing the cultivation techniques,and India eventually overtook China as the world’s largest tea exporter in 1900.In short,botanical knowledge provided a strong scientific guarantee for the development of BEIC,greatly promoted its commercial expansion,the rich trade profits helped the BEIC to consolidate its rule in India.At the same time,the development of British botany was highly dependent on colonial expansion,Because Britain had the largest colony in the world,which provided botanists with continuous research materials;And colonial expansion connected the scattered and independent botanical knowledge systems around the world,Forming a global Botanical network.The BEIC ruled India on behalf of the British government until 1857,with all sorts of privileges,becoming the pioneer of British colonial expansion in the East and the representative of British imperial interests.Therefore botanical knowledge contributed to the development of the BEIC,and promoted the expansion of the interests of the British Empire,British botany and colonial expansion were influenced and to be the cause and result each other and,produced profound influences in world history.