The first Director General for the Company was François de la Faye, who was adjoined by two Directors belonging to the two most successful trading organizations at that time: François Caron, who had spent 30 years working for the Dutch East India Company, including more than 20 years in Japan,[2] and Marcara Avanchintz, an Armenian trader from Isfahan, Persia.

French merchant ships traversed the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and the northwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent.

The Compagnie des Indes Orientales was granted a 50-year monopoly on French trade in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, a region stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan.

The French court were in deep misery and were impotent to cover their debts caused due to War of Spanish Succession.

[8] Law approached the Crown with a scheme to construct a national bank and introduce paper currency, which would facilitate France's shift to credit economy.

[8] The company failed to found a successful colony on Madagascar, but was able to establish ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon and Île-de-France (today's Réunion and Mauritius).

The French arrived at the Indian subcontinent decades after the English, Portuguese and Dutch in establishing trade in India.

[11] By 1683, the French had directed their attention toward the prominent site of Pondicherry, however the shift did little to offset the company's chronic shortage of capital.

[13] With the decline of the Mughal Empire, the French decided to intervene in Indian political affairs to protect their interests, notably by forging alliances with local rulers in south India.

From 1741 the French under Joseph François Dupleix pursued an aggressive policy against both the Indians and the British until they ultimately were defeated by Robert Clive.

[14] King Louis XV issued a 1769 edict that required the company to transfer to the state all its properties, assets and rights, which were valued at 30 million livres.

[16] When this became known the following year, the resulting scandal led to the execution of key Montagnard deputies like Fabre d'Églantine and Joseph Delaunay, among others.