Queen Elizabeth I granted a royal charter creating the English East India Company (EIC), establishing the corporate framework that later enabled permanent trading settlements in Mughal India.
Company ships arrived at Surat, the major Mughal port in Gujarat, marking the EIC’s early effort to tap into Indian Ocean commerce under Mughal authority.
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) obtained permission to build a fort at Pulicat, helping anchor Dutch textile procurement and export networks on the Coromandel Coast that competed with other Europeans for Indian cloth.
The EIC set up an early trading station (factory) at Masulipatnam on the Andhra coast, integrating into regional textile markets that supplied the Company’s wider Asian trade.
After the naval Battle of Swally near Surat, Mughal authorities were more receptive to English trade; the episode helped the EIC secure a stronger foothold in western India’s overseas commerce.
An English factory began operating at Surat, providing the EIC with a durable base for exporting Indian textiles and importing bullion and European goods within Mughal-controlled Gujarat.
A treaty with the Thanjavur Nayak kingdom granted the Danish East India Company possession of Tranquebar, adding another European coastal settlement tied to Indian Ocean trade in textiles and other goods.
Mughal forces captured the Portuguese fort at Hooghly after a prolonged siege, weakening Portuguese influence in Bengal’s riverine and overseas trade and reshaping European competition in the Mughal east.
The EIC obtained permission from the Chandragiri ruler to build a fortified trading settlement at Madras (Chennai), positioning the Company closer to major weaving centers that supplied export cloth.
Charles II leased/assigned Bombay to the EIC for an annual rent, giving the Company a strategic deep-water harbor that would increasingly support western Indian Ocean trade and Company naval logistics.
French East India Company leadership secured control and permission to build a factory at Chandernagore (on the Hooghly), marking the consolidation of a French commercial settlement in Mughal Bengal’s export economy.
Under pressure during conflict with Mughal authorities, Company agent Job Charnock shifted operations from Hooghly to Sutanuti, a move that helped establish the Company’s principal Bengal river-port base for overseas trade.
Between 1696 and 1702 the EIC built Fort William at Calcutta, strengthening the security of its Bengal trade hub and enabling expanded storage, protection, and control over river-borne commerce.
Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar issued a 1717 farman providing sweeping commercial privileges (including low fixed payments and passes/dastaks), which the Company later leveraged to expand private and official trade in Bengal and beyond.
The EIC victory at Plassey and installation of Mir Jafar as nawab brought Bengal under de facto Company control, transforming the Company from a privileged trading corporation into a dominant political-commercial power in Mughal India’s richest export region.
Mughal overseas trade and European company settlements (1600–1757)
