India, Feb. 26 -- The East India Company was once a force to reckon with, wielding immense economic influence and political might that paved the way for the British colonisation of India. Now, the company has shut down again, its most recent incarnation having operated as a luxury retailer in London.

The East India Company had been revived in 2010 as a luxury food and drink retailer, the modern incarnation sought to trade on heritage rather than empire. But this second life proved short-lived.

The company has now been placed into liquidation, The Sunday Times has revealed, a far quieter ending than the upheaval that defined its original dissolution.

But before the liquidation, it had survived another demise. This was in 1857.

The East...