It started in 1698 with the successful expedition of the French ship Amphitrite, and ended in 1719 by being absorbed into John Law's Company.
In the fall of 1697, shipowner Jean Jourdan de Groucé was supported by minister Jérôme Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain to outfit the Amphitrite, circumventing the theoretical mandate of the then-moribund French East India Company.
[1] He sailed on 6 March 1698 from La Rochelle,[2]: 280 arrived in Canton on 2 November that year,[3] and returned on 13 August 1700.
[1] That maiden voyage marked the inception of direct maritime trade between France and China.
On that occasion, Law's company had its name changed to the Compagnie des Indes, which in the vocabulary of the time included China.