The Anarchy by William Dalrymple
This post is continuosly updated.
Around 1599
- Important Dates
- 31 December, 1600: The East India Company gets the royal charter
- 28 August, 1608: Hector becomes the first EIC vessel to drop anchor in India
- 1618: The EIC gets permission from Jahangir to build their first factory in Surat
- Around 1618: Second factory established at Masulipatnam on the east coast - the port of the Mughal’s Deccani rivals. This was for textiles
- Around 1618: Third factory comes up in Patna trading in Saltpetre - an active ingredient in gun powder.
- 1634: EIC gets permission to build a fort near Madraspatnam. This becomes
the first colonial town in India.
- Incentives given to the East India Company (EIC):
- Exemption from all custom duties for their first six voyages
- A British monopoly for 15 years over ‘trade to the East Indies’, an area that was not clearly defined
- Semi-sovereign privilages to rule territories and raise armies
In essense, the EIC, a private company, was granted permission to:- Claim jurisdiction over all English subjects in Asia
- Mint money
- Raise fortifications
- Make laws
- Wage war
- Conduct an independent foreign policy
- Hold courts
- Issue punishment
- Imprison English subjects
- Plant English settlements.
- Status of England in early 1600s
- A relatively impoverished, largely agricultural country.
- Spain and Portugal were already successful in planting and sustaining viable colonies in different continents. They were, naturally, the economic powerhouses of Europe. The Dutch were growing fast
- The English were forced to look for new markets and commercial openings. In skills of long-distance trade or planting and sustaining viable colonies, the English were rookies in comparison to their European neighbors.
- They started off by looting Spanish, Portugese, and Dutch ships laden with rich cargo.
- Investments, as in 1602 (not in today’s GBP value):
- The English EIC: GBP 68,373
- The Dutch EIC: GBP 550,000.
- India in early 1600s:
- Population: 150 million (about a fifth of global population). England, at that time, had 5% of India’s population.
- Was the world’s industrial power house - was producing about a quarter of global manufacturing. England was accounted for a little less than 3%.
- World’s leader in manufactured textiles
- Was certainly responsible for a much larger share of world trade than any comparable zone
- It’s economic power even reached Mexico, whose textile manufacture suffered a crisis of ‘de-industrialization’ due to Indian cloth imports
- The Moghul emperor in India was the richest monarch in the world. He had an income of around GBP 100 million (> GBP 10 billion today).
- The Mughal capitals were the megacities of their day. They attracted merchants from all over Asia.
- Between 1586 and 1605, the Mughals imported 18 metric tons of European silver every year.
- The Mughals had an army of 4 million men. No European nation could think of a war with the Mughals.
- Both the Portugese and the English tried to establish a relationship with the Mughal Empereror by giving him expensive gifts. The Portugese were more excitable than the English, and they paid the price for that.
- The Mughals were curious about the English, but hardly overwhelmed.
Infact, they regarded relations with the English as a very low priority.
- Reversal of spice trade
- By 1630s, EIC was importing GBP 1 million worth of pepper from India, and began exporting it to Italy and the Middle East.
- This was a landmark development because, for centuries, spice trade was dominated by Middle Eastern middlemen who trebled the price as their commission.
- The birth of Madras
- In 1634, the EIC got the permission to build a fort near a fishing village called Madraspatnam.
- This village was chosen because the concerned EIC official had an affair with a woman who lived close Madraspatnam.
The EIC got the right- to build a fort and castle
- to trade customs free
- to perpetually enjoy the privilages of mintage
By 1670s, the town Madras had grown to be the first colonial town in India. It was also minting its own gold coins.