'There can b e no Partnership with the King': Regulatory Commitment and the Tortured Rise of England's East Indian Merchant Empire  Dan Bogart y January 2015 Abstract The English East India Company help ed build Britain's colonial empire, but the Company struggled for much of its early history due to a violotile regulatory environ- ment. This pap er argues that the Company's p erformance was hindered by instability and incapacity of English institutions as late as the mid eighteenth century. It gives a brief history of the torturous renegotiations over its monop oly trading privileges and the scal demands by the monarchy. It also analyzes the eects of p olitical instabil- ity, warfare, and scal capacity on the Company's investment in shipping tonnage. Regressions show the growth of shipping tonnage declined signicantly when there were changes in government ministers, when Britain was at war in Europ e and North America, and when shipping capacity exceeded central government tax revenues. The ndings p oint to the signicance of regulatory institutions in Britain's development and its links with p olitics and war. They also provide a unique insight into how regulations and investment change as institutions evolve.