The company was launched in 1834 by Dwarakanath Tagore in partnership with William Carr, an indigo trader of Kolkata (then known as Calcutta).
Dwarakanath played a leading role in the company, providing its capital, selecting its partners and directing its investment strategy throughout his life.
In capital starved India, the inflow of cash from it gave Dwarkanath an opportunity to toy with a new idea.
[2][3][4] In 1770, Suetonius Grant Heatly and John Sumner teamed up to get permission of the East India Company to mine coal.
The East India Company sponsored William Jones for mining coal in Bardhaman (then Burdwan).
[5] In his biography, Partner in Empire: Dwarakanath Tagore and the Age of Enterprise in Eastern India, Blair B.
King opines that the firm had managerial and technical expertise, plenty of capital and vital ability to handle both the Kolkata officials and the local powers.
Carr, Tagore and Company fought with them on many fronts and tried to establish themselves as the sole supplier of coal in the region.
The British authorities were not happy with the near-monopoly of Carr, Tagore and Company in the field of coal mining.
That really was a great chapter in the annals of Indian business marking the beginning of systematic coal mining in India.