| The
English East India Company: The Mughal Empire |
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India was
ruled by the Mughal Emperors from1526 until the middle
of the 1700s.
The Portuguese
had been trading directly with India over 100 years
before the first English East India Company ships reached
Surat. The Company was not welcome. In 1611 the Company
asked King James to send an ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe,
to visit the Mughal Emperor, Jahangir. The Emperor ruled
over a prosperous civilisation that produced many goods
and had many different religions in it (the Mughals
were Muslim).
Roe was granted
some trading privileges at Surat but it was some years
later before the Company established a factory (trading
centre). From Surat the company could send Indian textiles
to the market at Bantam.
other countries.
Highly skilled
dyers and weavers in India produced cloth with beautiful
colour-fast designs. This successful industry produced
an enormous amount of cloth for markets throughout Asia.
In England demand for Indian textiles grew fast and
many patterns for the new textile industry in England
came from India. By 1750 Indian silks, cottons and calicoes
made up 60 per cent of the company's sales.
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