In this article, we discuss the arrival of the British East India Company in India and also the arrival of the British in India for various competitive exams such as UPSC, SSC, etc...
The Cape of Good Hope was discovered in 1488. With this, a sea route was established between Europe and the rest of the Eastern Countries.
Soon after this European countries started trading with Eastern countries. The Cape of Good Hope was discovered by Bartolomeu Dias, a Portuguese explorer.
First of all, Portuguese companies started doing this sea route. Later, other nearby companies started trading through this route.
On 31 December 1600, some businessmen formed a company called the Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading with East Countries. This company was called the British East India Company.
The British East India Company needed the permission of the Queen of England to trade with India and the rest of the Eastern Countries.
The company filed a petition with Queen Elizabeth and explained to the Queen how they would make a profit by trading.
The Queen also passed a charter and gave it to the British East India Company. In this charter, the company was given a monopoly to trade for 15 years.
Here it was permitted to trade with all countries that came east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Strait of Magellan.
The East India Company had a large number of Servants who reported to the Governor, the Governor reported to the Court of Directors whose number was 24. These were appointed by the Court of Proprietor.
Despite registering the company and starting trading, it took 8 years for the company to come to India. This company was established in 1600 but came to India in 1608.
The reason for this was that the other East India Companies such as the Portuguese East India Company which had already come to India did not want them to have any competition.
On the way, there used to be fought between these two companies. But by any means, the British East India Company came to Surat.
Coming here, he understood that reaching here is not enough, because the Mughals were in power in India. If you want to make good profits in trade, then it was necessary to keep the Mughals happy.
The Mughal emperors of that time, Jahangir and Queen Elizabeth had died in 1603 and the rule of James I was going on in Britain.
The British East India Company told James I that India was ruled by Jahangir and he was not allowing us to set up a factory in India. If factories were not established, the British could not do trading.
James I said that you start trading, I will do the work of permission. In 1615, James I gave a delegation to the court of Jahangir. Sir Thomas Roe with this delegation.
He reached the Darbar of Jahangir and for some time he started living. He tried to bribe Jahangir in every way. Whatever Jahangir liked, he gave everything.
The best of Europe's best things reached it. Finally, in1615, Jahangir gave permission to the Britishers.
As soon as the permission was received, the British East India Company made its trading coast in Surat in 1619. The East India Company Established its first factory at Surat in 1619.
After this, he made coasts at different places like in Madras in 1639, in Bombay in 1668, and in Bombay in 1690.
The British used to bring Persian Horses Aru Coffee in trading and used to carry cotton and silk clothes from India.
By 1647, the British East India Company had consolidated 23 factories. The British used these factories as warehouses, where they kept their goods and people also lived.
Out of these 3 factories were very big and looked like a fort and their name was Fort William, Bengal, Fort st. George, Madras and Bombay Castle, Bombay.
After this, the Mughal emperor Farrukh Shah waived the customs duty of the company in 1717, after that the East India Company earned a lot of money.
Till now the British East India Company was a trading company but after that the Battle of Plassey and Battle of Buxar took place. The british east india company established its power after the Battle of Plassey and Battle of Buxar.
After these two battles, the British East India Company became a political power.
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