A History of India, Third Edition

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE

efficient than the rather cumbersome Dutch hierarchy, and this is why
finally even people in Amsterdam bought shares in the British rather than
in the Dutch East India Company.
The rapid rise of the West European East India Companies occurred at a
time when the Mughal empire was still at its height. Seen from Delhi the
Europeans appeared to be rather marginal figures in Asia. But by the end
of the seventeenth century there were some indications that these marginal
figures had a considerable nuisance value. In 1686 the British waged a
maritime war against the Great Mughal knowing full well that he was
quite helpless at sea. They managed to block the flourishing trade of
Bengal with Southeast Asia for some time. Even ships belonging to high
Mughal officers and to members of the Great Mughal’s family were seized
by the British. The victims subsequently withdrew from this trade and
probably entrusted their goods to the Dutch or to European country
traders, if they still ventured to take part in international trade at all. For
the British East India Company this war, which ended in 1688, was of no
use: Aurangzeb drove them out of their factory at Hugli and they had to
settle further down the river where they held a few villages in a rather
unhealthy and inconvenient area. One of these villages was Calcutta, of
which nobody would then have guessed that it was destined to become the
metropolis of Britain’s Indian empire. Madras and Bombay were still much
more important in the late seventeenth century. The power of the Great
Mughal remained unchallenged in Bengal and it seemed as if the British
were only conducting some rearguard action there.

French ambitions and reverses

Another major European power which was destined to play an important
part in the history of India in the eighteenth century was also still rather
insignificant in the Indian context of the late seventeenth century. In 1664
a French East India Company had been founded at the instance of the
energetic finance minister, Jean Baptiste Colbert, who enjoyed the full
support of Louis XIV in this venture. Colbert avidly copied Dutch
precedent and organised the French company on federal lines. This was
counterproductive, because the company was organised by the government
and there were no private capitalists who had to be accommodated in
federal chambers, like those formed by the merchants of the different
Dutch provinces. Colbert had to press the great dignitaries of the realm to
subscribe funds for this purpose. They did so reluctantly: it was much safer
and more lucrative to invest money at home. The French practice of the
sale of offices offered prestige and income to all who had money to invest.
Whoever contributed to the French East India Company did so only in
order to please the king. The king was indeed pleased, and the first French
voyage to India was organised in royal style.