British chartered trading company which entered Manx parliamentary discussion through proposals for recruiting troops for service in India.

During debate on an East India recruiting bill, Parliament considered where recruits might be assembled before embarkation. Islands including Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man were specifically discussed and rejected as possible depots.

The objections were practical. The islands were said to be unable to supply the necessary provisions, to lie outside the normal track of East India ships and therefore to risk delaying voyages out of the Channel, and to create other logistical difficulties.

The proposal formed part of a wider debate over how the Company should recruit European soldiers for Bengal. Evidence before the Commons described the poor quality of many existing recruits, mortality during crowded passages and the need for a more regulated system.

The Isle of Man therefore appears here not because the East India Company maintained a Manx establishment, but because Mann was considered — and rejected — as a possible place for assembling recruits before departure for India.

The present evidence pack contains a large quantity of general East India Company parliamentary material, but this recruiting debate is the clearest direct connection with the Island.