Give an account of different European trading companies besides the British East
India Company that entered the Eastern markets.
Answers
The Portuguese:
The Portuguese under the leadership of Vasco da Gama landed at Calicut on the 17th May, 1498 and were received warmly by the Hindu ruler of Calicut bearing the hereditary title of Zamorin. Profits of goods brought by Vasco da Gama to Portugal were 60 times cost of the entire expedition to India.
The arrival of Pedro Alvarez Cabral in India in 1500 A.D. and the second trip of Vasco da Gama in 1502 led to the establishment of trading stations at Calicut, Cochin and Cannanore. Cochin was the early capital of the Portuguese in India.
The Portuguese maritime empire acquired the name of Estado da India and its initial objective was to seize the spice trade, but after Cabral’s voyage she decided to divert to herself all the trade of the east with Europe.
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 or the Vereenigde ost-lndische Companies (VOC) in 1602. It was granted an exclusive right to trade with India and East Indies and vested with powers of attack and conquest by the state.
The Dutch first came to the islands of Sumatra, Java and the Spice Islands, attracted by the lucrative trade in pepper and spices. What brought them to India in the first instance was rather the requirements of the archipelago than of the European market.
The spices of the archipelago were exchanged for cotton goods from Gujarat and the Coromandel Coast.
THE FRENCH:
Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, created the Companies des Indus Orientals in 1664 financed by the state. The first French factory in India was established by Francois Caron at Surat in 1668 and Maracara succeeded in establishing another French factory at Masulipatam in 1669 by obtaining permission from the Sultan of Golconda.
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 Tranquebar (in Tamilnadu) in 1620 and at 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.