The East India Company was an English company formed for the exploitation of trade with East and Southeast Asia and India. Incorporated by royal charter on 31 December 1600, it was started as a monopolistic trading body so that England could participate in the East Indian spice trade. It also traded cotton, silk, indigo, saltpeter, and tea and transported slaves. It became involved in politics and acted as an agent of British imperialism in India from the early 18th century to the mid-19th century. From the late 18th century it gradually lost both commercial and political control. It ceased to exist as a legal entity in 1873.