Steamship competition in Asia in the late nineteenth century

There was fierce competition between Bombay and Calcutta merchants in the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1829, the British India Company steamship, the Hugh Lindsay, 411 tons and 160 hp, sailed between Bombay and Suez in 33 days. In 1865, after 10 years experience as a captain, Endicott raised the necessary funds from British and American investors to set up the Hong Kong, Guan dong and Macau Steamboat Company. British and French steamers handled the Chinese labor trades in the 1850s. Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company controlled the main ocean trade route to Asia. With the expansion of the India trade after the Napoleonic wars in Europe, the East India merchants put pressure on their rivals in the shipping business in Asia. With the Industrial Revolution, Britain became the leading country in Western Europe with its widespread empire "on which the sun never sets".