East India Company flintlock rampart gun, 1820 (c)

The valuable goods of the East India Company were worth protecting. This huge gun would have been mounted on a building or even on a boat. It is a giant version of a regular musket, but its size and weight meant it would not have been very practical to move or to load. The Company controlled many forts, trading posts and merchant ships and these all had to be defended from rival European powers and local India rulers.