Home Assignment - 3

India’s trade with the East and West and consequential diplomatic, cultural and other
relations with them.

Before the 16th century, Indian trade was predominantly with the Arabs due to their control
of the Suez Canal, hence the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. This pattern was broken by the
Portuguese when Vasco da Gama first discovered an alternative route through the Cape of
Good Hope.

The Portuguese: The arrival of the Portuguese in India was followed by the advent of other
European communities and soon India’s coastal and maritime trade was monopolized by the
Europeans. The European merchants who came to India during this period differed from the
earlier foreign merchants and had the political and military support of their respective
governments. These merchants, in addition to their commercial motives held territorial
ambitions. With the intention to capture all of the Eastern trade for themselves, they went
into naval battles with the Indian emperors and strengthened their territories by appointing
governor generals.

They also encouraged matrimonial alliances with the locals to increase permanent
Portuguese population. The Portuguese thereby established settlements at Diu, Daman,
Salsette, Bassein, Chaul and Bombay, San Thome near Madras and Hugli in Bengal. In 1534,
the Portuguese secured permission from the Sultan of Bengal to build factories at Satgaon
(called Porto Piqueno, little port) and Chittagong (Porto Grande, great port.)

Decline of the Portuguese: The Portuguese monopoly of the Indian Ocean remained
unbroken till 1595 but gradually lost many of their settlements in India.

Few of the reasons for this are –

• Inefficient administration

• Religious intolerance for Muslims provoked the Indian rulers

• Division of forces for trade in Brazil

• Arrival of other European companies

The Dutch: With a view to get direct access to the spice markets in South-East Asia, the
Dutch undertook several voyages from 1596 and eventually formed the Dutch East India
Company. The credit for making Indian textiles the premier export from India goes to the
Dutch. Textiles woven according to special patterns sent from Bantam and Batavia,
constituted the chief export of the Coromandel ports. Indigo was exported from
Masulipatam.
In 1616 Pieter Van den Broecke got from the governor the permission to erect a factory at
Surat. The directorate of Surat proved to be one of the most profitable establishment of the
Dutch Company. By supplanting the Portuguese, the Dutch practically maintained a
monopoly of the spice trade in the East throughout the 17th Century.

Anglo – Dutch Rivalry: By the beginning of the 18th century the Dutch power in India began
to decline. Their final collapse came with their defeat by the English in the battle of Bedara
in 1759. The expulsion of the Dutch from their possessions in India by the British came in
1795.

The English: A fireman was issued by Jahangir in 1613 permitting the English to establish a
factory at Surat after the defeat of the Portuguese fleet. On the south-eastern coast, the
English established a factory at Masulipatam in 1611 and Armagaon near Pulicat in 1626.
The Sultan of Golcunda granted the English the “Golden Fireman” in 1632 by which they
were allowed to trade freely in their kingdom ports.

Initially a junior partner in the Mughal empire’s sophisticated commercial networks, in the
18th century, the EIC became increasingly involved in subcontinental politics. They grappled
to maintain their trading privileges in the face of declining central Mughal authority and the
emergence of dynamic individual successor states. It soon grew into a colony of exploitation
from a mere trading company which continued till Indian independence in 1947.

The French: The first French factory in India was established at Surat in 1668. When its
second factory in Masulipatnam was lost to the Dutch in 1673, land was granted by the
Sultan of Golconda for a factory and a modest Pondicherry was established. Further
factories of the French were granted in places like Bengal, in marked contrast with the
prosperity of Pondicherry, the French lost their influence in other places. The French in India
declined between 1706 and 1720 which led to the reconstitution of the Company in 1720, as
the “Perpetual Company of the Indies.”

After 1742 political motives began to overshadow the desire for commercial gain with the
arrival of Dulpleix as French governor in India (1742). It resulted in the beginning of Anglo-
French conflict by which the French were defeated.

The Danes: The Danes formed an East India Company and arrived in India in 1616. The
Danish settlements were established at Tamilnadu and Serampore in Bengal in 1676 which
was the headquarters of Danes in India. They failed to strengthen themselves in India and in
1845 were forced to sell all their Indian settlements to the British.