Wow, I'm kinda shocked actually.
I thought most people KNEW that the EITC was mostly british. Normally people would say "Dutch" only if they needed to make the distiction.
The EITC was part of Britain's vast empire that they held prior to WWII.
"East India" was used to make the difference known from the "West Indies" which is where we all sail of course in the game!
Starting back in the 1500's Spain had a MUCH larger control over the West Indies and areas of the Gulf Of Mexico, Florida and parts of South America, bringing back vast amounts of gold and trade goods back to Spain.
England, and the Dutch at that time were having a MUCH harder time of it. The French tended to do better than them.
This was when "Privateering" that we're familiar with today was born (Privateering had actually been around for much longer than that, but this time period is where it gave birth to the "Pirates" that we know, love, and play today came from).
The problem was, each country that would "hire" their Privateers, had a nasty habit of turning on them. Sort of trying to "wash their hands" so to speak. Many Privateers suddenly found themselves as outlaws and sentenced to hang by the very country that contracted them in the first place!
Of course, many privateers brought that down on their own heads by playing both sides of the field so to speak! hehehe
The EITC was an entity almost to it's own. It was formed with a royal charger from Queen Elizabeth I on New Years Eve, 1600.
It pretty much came to rule much of India, and even hired a Privateer, Captain Kidd to help combat piracy in the Indian Ocean.
The EITC became defuct around 1858 and was formally desolved in 1873.
The funny thing is, most Privateering in the Caribbean was carried out by the British against the Spanish: not the EITC
Those Privateers attacking EITC or other "unauthorized" ships, found themselves listed as criminals. The whole idea being that War was wasteful, but capturing Spanish ships and bring them, with their cargo, back to England was not.
However, as you can imagine, EITC ships, full of goods from India were a prize worth considering: Board the ship, kill off the crew, sell off the ship and it's cargo to some neutral port. Only have to worry about your own crew spilling the beans.
Oh, on a side note: piece of trivia for you.
In 2007, a warehouse in India was still listed as being owned by the EITC and was sent an electric bill for it.