Living Words - Projects - Trading Places

The East India Company Map

On this map you can find some of the places that were very
important for the East India Company at different times.

Click on the names of the places for more information.

London

The capital city of England. This is where the Company had its docks and offices. East India Company voyages from Europe mostly started from here. Here you can see the offices of the East India Company from 1711.

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The Netherlands

The Netherlands (also called Holland) had its own East India Company called the VOC, which started two years after the English one.

Portugal

Portugal was trading in the East, especially in the Spice Islands, before England was. In the East, the two countries often fought each other for trade.

St Helena

This is a tiny island in the Atlantic Ocean. Lots of East India Company ships used to stop here to restock and let the crew rest.

Cape of Good Hope

This is a dangerous area of sea where lots of ships were wrecked because there were so many storms. The place called "Table Bay" is now known as Cape Town. Here you can see lots of European Ships on a calm day.

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Mokha

The East India Company bought coffee from Mokha. This led to the beginning of coffee-houses in London and all over Europe. Later on, tea from China and India became more popular. Which is more popular now?

Surat

The first English East India Company factory in India was here at Surat. It could only be opened once the Mughal Emperor Jahangir gave his permission. The picture, drawn by a Dutchman, shows ships at the port of the city.

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Bombay (Mumbai)

Although we now call it Mumbai, this city used to be called Bombay. You can find out all about the history of this city in another part of this website. Many East India Company ships were built here. The picture shows English East Indiamen (ships) in the harbour. You can see the English factory in the centre.

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Madras (Chennai)

There was an English factory at Madras after the one at Surat was set up. In those days it was just a small village called Madraspatnam, but it soon became a large town because of the trade. Since 1997 it has been called Chennai. The picture shows Fort St George at Madras in the 1700's

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Calcutta

This city grew up because of an English trading post and was founded by "Honest" Job Charnock, an East India Company man.

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Canton (Guangzhou)

By 1715, this was the only port in China that foreign ships could trade at. Europeans were only allowed to trade at the factories. They were not allowed to enter the city at all. Here you can see the European factories at Canton.

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Achin (Aceh)

Achin is on the Northern tip of the island called Sumatra. It was the first place that the East India Company sent a ship to buy pepper. It was ruled by a Sultan who was a Muslim. The first English crew were entertained with a gamelan (a group of musical instruments), like the one shown here.

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Bantam (Banten)

Bantam, on the island of Java, had a huge marketplace where traders came from all over the world to exchange goods (including Chinese merchants in their ships called 'junks'). Bantam had a king, and this illustration shows the king's ambassador to London in 1682.

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The Spice Islands

These were very small islands in the Banda Sea which were very hard to get to. They are so small, in fact, that you cannot see them on this map. They were famous for their nutmeg and cloves, which were very plentiful there, but extremely rare and expensive in England. Each island was ruled by a different ruler and the English, Dutch and Portuguese fought over who could trade with them.