Trade and Political Dominion in South India, 1750–1790: Changing British-Indian Relations *

Abstract

The English East India Company’s Coromandel trade provided a spectacle of steady, if unspectacular, growth from its first inauguration early in the seventeenth century. The timely demonstration of controlled power, both when faced with threats from the ‘country’ powers of the hinterland and from European rivals on the seafront, helped in the growth of these settlements beyond mere centres of trade. The import trade consisted of bullion and specie and a smaller proportion of European goods such as woollens, broad-cloth and minerals. The growing population in the settlements generated their own trade in consumables. The merchants who supplied the English were given the status of ‘Company Merchants’, a status that conferred some rights in the settlement, such as godown space and protection, an option on import goods, some share in the Company’s fiscal privileges and some ceremonial rights such as riding in a palanquin within the City.