Question

Describe the The French as the European Trading companies in India ?​

Answer 1

Their important commercial centres in India were Pulicat, Surat, Negapattam, Cochin, Chinsurah, Cossimbazar, Baranagore, Patna, and Belasore. Indigo, silk, saltpetre, rice, cotton fabrics, opium were the main articles of their export trade from India.

Answer 2

Answer:

The French were the first among the European nations that desired for commercial relations with the countries of the East, but as it happened, they were the last to come into the field of eastern commerce and enter into competition with other European com­panies.

In the second half of the sixteenth century, a French merchant ship came to the Portuguese business centre Diu in India. But during the rest of the century and the first half of the seventeenth, no French merchant ships came to India but two such ships reached Sumatra in 1601.

Bourbon king Henry IV, and minister like Richelieu realised the importance of the eastern trade and Henry IV following the ins­tance of the Netherlands formed the French East India Company. But its initial attempts having proved unsuccessful, no further attempts at establishing trade relations with the East were made for a few years to follow. Nevertheless some French mariners, as a private enterprise, came to Persia, Arabia and even to Bengal and the Deccan in India. Two of them, Giles de Regiment and Rigault, were specially noteworthy.

In the middle of the seventeenth century the French traveller Fancois Bernier visited the Mughal court and on his return to France wrote an account of the wealth and merchandise of India. The information contained in his account roused the enthusiasm of the French mariners and merchants. It was about this time Louis XIV’s finance minister Colbert formed a French East India Com­pany named ‘Compagnie des Indes Orientals’ in 1664. Louis XIV provided the company with an interest-free loan of 3 million livres.

The Company was thus created and financed by the State. After initial attempts made to colonise Madagascar had proved a failure, the Company undertook a fresh expedition in 1667 under the command of Francois Caron accompanied by Marcara, a native of Ispahan reached India and set up the first French factory at Surat in 1668. Marcara succeeded in obtaining a patent from the Sultan of Gol-kunda and set up a second French factory at Masulipatam in 1669.

In 1672 the French began to use force for expanding their control over the Indian territories and seized San Thome, a Dutch business centre close to Madras, by defeating the French Admiral De La Haye. But the French were defeated by the combined forces of the Sultan of Golkunda and the Dutch.

The French had to restore San Thome to the Dutch. In the meantime Francois Martin and Bellinger des Lespinay obtained from the Muslim governor of Valikondapuram a small village where Martin lay the foundation of Pondicherry in 1673 and himself took charge of the modest settle­ment in 1674 which was to develop into a very important place and the largest and the most important French business centre in India. In 1684 the French obtained a grant from Nawab Shaista Khan of Bengal and set up a factory in Chandernagore in 1690-92.

The French and the Dutch merchants became mutually hostile and the English merchants rendered help to the Dutch in their rivalry with the French. In 1693, the newly built French factory at Pondicherry was captured by the Dutch but by the treaty of Ryswick between the European powers there was restoration of mutual conquests and the Dutch returned Pondicherry to the French in 1697.

Martin was again placed in charge of Pondicherry and within a few years he developed it into a very prosperous and important business centre of the French in India. In 1706 Martin died but at that time Pondicherry had a population of (40,000) almost twice as much as that of Calcutta (22,000).

During the first quarter of the eighteenth century, however, the French Company suffered serious set back for lack of resources and the factories at Surat, Masulipatam and Bantam had to be abandoned. This condition of the French Company continued till 1720 during which period the Company passed through very’ bad days. None of the Governors that managed the affairs of the Com­pany from the death of Martin till 1720 was strong or capable.

In that year the French East India Company was reorganised and re­named as ‘Perpetual Company, of the Indies’ and under the able administration of Lenoir and Dumas, prosperity returned and the French even occupied Mauritius, Mahe, Karikal etc. It may be mentioned that Lenoir or Dumas had no political motive, expansion of commerce was the only motive behind their expansion of terri­tories. They raised fortification, maintained troops no doubt, but all this was for the purpose of defending their settlement against the attack of the English and the Dutch.

From after 1742, there was a change in the character and objective of the French Company and motive of imperial expan­sion replaced their former commercial motive. This naturally opened a new chapter in the Anglo-French conflict in India which was of serious political consequences to the political history of India herself.