The East India Trading Company, otherwise referred to as the East India Company or abbreviated as EITC, was a joint-stock company and megacorporation formed for pursuing and monopolizing trade with the East Indies and the Caribbean. The East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium. The Company was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600. Shares of the Company were owned by wealthy merchants and aristocrats. The government owned no shares and had only indirect control. The Company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own private armies, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions.