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relations between the Portuguese and the Arabs, 1609. But, this concession was revoked under
Vasco da Gama decided to return home. Late pressure from the Portuguese. The prospects of
January of 1499, the ship Sao Raphael ran the British brightened up when they defeated the
aground and had to be burned. When the Portuguese in 1612 at Swally, near Surat.
remaining two ships returned to Lisbon in early Jahangir granted a firman to the English, allow-
September of 1499, only 55 seamen were still ing them to establish a permanent factory at
alive. Even Vasco da Gama’s brother Paolo had Surat, in 1613. In 1615, the English ambassador,
died. The crew was sick with scurvy and almost Sir Thomas Roe, got the permission from the
dead with exhaustion. The sea route to India had Mughal Emperor to open more factories at Agra,
been opened. Ahmedabad and Broach.
The most important settlement on the eastern
THE PORTUGUESE
coast was Madras. Its site was procured in 1639
To Portugal belongs the credit of this discovery. by Francis Day from the Raja of Chandragiri with
In 1498, Vasco da Gama discovered a sea route permission to build a fortified factory which was
to India. Initially the Portuguese controlled the
named Fort St. George. This was the first
trade route along the malabar coast. Their
proprietory holding acquired by the Company on
position was consolidated by able generals like
Indian soil. Madras, soon, became a thriving
Alameda and Albuquerque who established their
settlement with growing population and was
trade settlements in Goa, Daman and Diu.
made a presidency in 1684.
THE DUTCH Meanwhile, the prospects of the Company
The Dutch were attracted more to the Spice moving northwards improved through the efforts
Islands than to India. In 1602, they founded the of an English surgeon named Gabriel Boughton.
Dutch East India Company. The commercial In return for the medical service which he ren-
interest of the Dutch also brought them to India. dered to the Mughal subhedar of Bengal, he
They established their trading centres at Surat, secured from his a license for the Company to
Broach. Ahmedabad, Cochin Nagapatam (near trade in Bengal. This enabled the English to
Madras), Masulipatnam (in Andhra Pradesh) and establish factories at Hughli in 1651 and soon
Chinsura (Bengal). In 1658, they won Ceylon after at Casimbazar and Patna. In 1688, the
from the Portuguese. But, the English won the Company obtained Bombay at the nominal rent
possessions of the Dutch in India one-by-one and of 10 pounds of gold a year from Charles II who
by 1759, they completely vanished from India.
THE ENGLISH
The victory of the English over the Spanish
Armada in 1588, stimulated their maritime
enterprise and initiated their colonial and com-
mercial expansion. They organised a company to
do the trade with the East. The name of their
company was East India Company. Captain
Howkins, the ambassador of King James I got a
Mughal decree (Farman) from the Mughal
Emperor, Jahangir to open a factory at Surat in Fort St. George, the first building established in 1639.
Social Science-8 15
