East India Companies surviving?

katchen

Banned
If the BEIC had been granted holdings in Australia,, perhaps if William Dampier had made a right turn and circumnavigated Australia discovering good land in southwest and east Australia in 1699, the BEIC would be one of the world's largest conglomerates today. It would be the equivalent ITTL of BHP Billiton or Rio Tinto as well as the largest grazier of cattle and sheep in Australia. And BEIC would be arguing rights and compensation over most of what it still owned and had not sold, due to the Mabo decision overturning the idea that Aboriginal Australians did not own land and that the land of Australia was therefore Terra Nullius, belonging to whatever white interests found it, instead of the Australian government. BEIC would be attempting to enforce freehold ownership of rocks and reefs all across the Indian Ocean --and the 200 mile economic zone and continental shelf around those reefs.
And BEIC would be the prototype for a number of other corporations. Indeed, BEIC might well have it's corporate headquarters on it's own private island for tax and sovereignty reasons.
 
Australia had a lot of untapped gold, and gold was what the EICs needed to buy Eastern goods with. Perhaps if they had found some gold in Australia they could have made a lot more easy money and stayed afloat for longer.

What about if France beat Britain in India, would the different balance of power effect the fortunes of these two EICs?
 
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