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Surat to Bombay: Transfer of Commercial Power

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Ruby Maloni
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Extract

The island of Bombay is the ancient property of the English East India Company; it hath hitherto been, of all her settlements, the most conducive to the greatness of the nation in Asia; yet, through the splendour of achievement, great acquisition of the territory, and immense harvests of wealth in Bengal and the Coast of Coromandel, it hath been in some measure overlooked, and, as if in a corner of the world, unnoticed.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , March 2002 , pp. 61 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 2002

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References

Notes

1 Pechel, S., An Historical Account of the Settlement and Possession of Bombay by the English East India Company (London 1781)Google Scholar.

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6 The English East India Company established a factory at Surat in 1613.

7 The Dutch Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie set up a factory at Surat in 1617.

8 The French Compagnie des lndes Orientales established its first Indian factory in 1668 at Surat.

9 Gupta, Ashin Das, Indian Merchants and the Decline of Surat c. 1700–1750 (Wiesbaden 1979) 2–20Google Scholar.

10 As in saltpetre and indigo.

11 Henceforth referred to as EIC.

12 I have used documents from the India Office Library, London, and the Archives of the Dutch United East India Company (VOC), kept in the National Archives of the Netherlands (ARA) in The Hague. KA (Koloniaal Archief) refers to the old numbering of these VOC archives.

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18 Ibid., 421.

19 Foster, The English Factories in India, 1668–69, 92.

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24 Koloniaal Archief 1841 passim.

25 Koloniaal Archief 1841, f. 84.

26 Koloniaal Archief 1841, General Letter to Bombay, 4 November 1719, paragraph 45.

27 Reports of Committee of Correspondence, 1722–1724, India Office Library.

28 Home Miscellaneous Series, 1709–1714, India Office Library.

29 Furber, Private Fortunes, 71.

30 In 1708 Bombay became an independent Presidency along with Calcutta and Madras. Surat, Broach, Cambay, Karwar, Tellicherry and Anjengo became its subordinate factories in 1710.

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34 Although most of her crew was Flemish, she had a Polish first mate, an Italian supercargo, a German surgeon, a French gunner and a Malay cook.

35 University of Ghent Library, MSS H. Hoys, 929, ‘Beschryvinghe van de stad Zurrate’.

36 Koloniaal Archief 1907, f. 237.

37 Koloniaal Archief 1907, f. 53.

38 Unfortunately, their names are not provided.

39 Koloniaal Archief 1907, ff. 230–233.

40 Lists of shipping and summaries of voyages were regularly sent to Batavia. Koloniaal Archief 1748, ff. 224–238 (1713–1714) and Koloniaal Archief 1907, ff. 230–233 (1723–1724).

41 Reports of Committee of Correspondence, July 1724.

42 Foster, The English Factories in India, 1665–67, 181–188.

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44 Khan, The East India Trade, 421.

45 Campbell, Materials 1, 48.

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48 Jim Masselos, ‘Changing Definitions of Bombay: City State to Capital City’ in: Banga, Ports, 273–317.

49 Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation.

50 Maloni, European Merchant.

51 Nightingale, Pamela, Trade and Empire in Western India: 1784–1806 (Cambridge 1970)Google Scholar.

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53 Foster, The English Factories in India, 1668–69, 65 and 74–75.

54 Maloni, Ruby, ’Seventeenth Century Surat: Cultural Interface in an Urban Environment’ in: Mathew, K.S. ed., Indian Ocean and Cultural Interaction 1400–1800 (Pondicherry 1996) 161–175Google Scholar.

55 A.H. Kidwai, ‘Conceptual and Methodological Issues: Ports, Port Cities and Ports Hinterlands’ in: Banga, Ports, 7–45.