John Wesley and the East India Company

Abstract

This article explores why John Wesley was slow to condemn the East India Company for its brutal exploitation of the Indian subcontinent in the late eighteenth century. One reason may have been a hope that the Company would support Methodist missionaries; another his friendship with Ebenezer Blackwell, who was active in Company affairs. A letter sent to shareholders in the mid-1760s suggests that Wesley was supporting efforts to stabilize the Company and secure its long-term partnership with the government. These failed, and the Company entered a period when short-term profit-seeking dominated its decisions, causing Wesley to finally speak out.