The East India Company became the most powerful multinational the world has ever known. However the first voyages of the East India Company were somewhat haphazard. This talk by London tour guide Rob Smith looks at the attempts by British sailors to set up trading missions in India, China, Japan and what is now Indonesia.

The difficulties faced included getting shipwrecked on an island full of penguins, accidentally firing the ships cannons at their ships boat, clashes with the Dutch East India company , mutinous crews , not to mention the ever present problem of diseases like scurvy and dysentery. Nevertheless, these challenges were overcome and the trading posts which made the East India Company fabulously profitable, were established.