The East India Company: The World's Most Powerful Corporation (The Story of Indian Business) by Tirthankar Roy Page B
Authors: Tirthankar Roy
there. In this way, the Fort St George in Madras became possible because Surat and Masulipatnam joined Day in quietly ignoring the Company headquarters in London.
What saved the settlement from a damaging disciplinary action was its immediate success as a commercial centre. Within months, dozens of weavers’ families came to Madras and started living there. Families of merchants and artisans residing in the Portuguese colony San Thome shifted residence to the English area. Although the Portuguese grudgingly accepted the English fort, and the Dutch watched in alarm from Pulicat, neither of them chose to act. Madras did not fail to supply sufficient cloth to Bantam. A French Capuchin monk, Father Ephraim de Nevers, built a place of worship for the spiritual benefit of Catholics and others alike. And, what might surprise the present-day visitor to the city, a Spanish traveller in the 1630s described the climate of Madras as ‘excellent’.
Day was summoned to England for punitive action inthe summer of 1841. At the end of an enquiry he was sent back with a bundle of letters authorizing the decision. However, as a face saver for the Company, he and other decision-makers were chastised for needless extravagance. In 1642, the head office of the Coromandel operations shifted from Masulipatnam to Madras. For this decision, Day received the support of the agent of Masulipatnam, Andrew Cogan. The support made a difference, for Cogan was both influential and forceful. In 1657, Fort St George ceased to be subordinate to Bantam, as it had been until then, and was elevated to the position of an independent trading station. Day returned to England in 1645. Not much is known about his life and career after this.
Unlike Surat or Masulipatnam, where the English merely had the right to reside and conduct trade, in the Fort St George they were landlords. It was a precarious title, but nonetheless did make the Company a territorial power on a small scale. In order to hold on to that power without the help of local rulers, the Madras authorities built a wall around the six square miles over which they had proprietary rights and protected it with a garrison. The wall and the garrison were again expenses considered ill-advised by London. The first colonial city in India came up inside these walls. Just outside the walls, a large colony of artisans and service providerscame to live. Later designated ‘white’ and ‘black’ towns respectively, in the 1670s, these two areas, already sharply demarcated, were described by John Fryer as the Christian Town and the Heathen Town. Thomas Bowrey, a private merchant who left a record of the place in the 1670s, reckoned that the two settlements together had a population of 40,000, which was a good size for a purely commercial town of this time. Many amongst the wealthier Indians of the town were Tamil artisans and Telugu merchants.
European settlements in the Coromandel were periodically exposed to territorial disputes. The Chandragiri kings who had granted the English the title to Madras were caught up in succession wars in the 1640s. Golconda, Bijapur and the Nayakas of Madura, Tanjore and Gingee became embroiled in a struggle for mastery over southern Deccan. The Dutch and the English settlements were alternately protected and threatened by these rivals. In 1646, a new threat materialized from the north, a combined Mughal army under Mir Jumla which defeated the rebellious Nayakas and came within two days’ march from Madras. Mir Jumla returned after confirming the English right to continue trading. The fact that his own army depended heavily on European gunners and generals may have played a part in this decision. More important to thesurvival of the Europeans settlements was the strength of their own military power, which could withstand attacks by the armies that the local states were able to put up.
A difficult problem was raised when the shadow of English politics fell on Madras in 1665. Edward
What saved the settlement from a damaging disciplinary action was its immediate success as a commercial centre. Within months, dozens of weavers’ families came to Madras and started living there. Families of merchants and artisans residing in the Portuguese colony San Thome shifted residence to the English area. Although the Portuguese grudgingly accepted the English fort, and the Dutch watched in alarm from Pulicat, neither of them chose to act. Madras did not fail to supply sufficient cloth to Bantam. A French Capuchin monk, Father Ephraim de Nevers, built a place of worship for the spiritual benefit of Catholics and others alike. And, what might surprise the present-day visitor to the city, a Spanish traveller in the 1630s described the climate of Madras as ‘excellent’.
Day was summoned to England for punitive action inthe summer of 1841. At the end of an enquiry he was sent back with a bundle of letters authorizing the decision. However, as a face saver for the Company, he and other decision-makers were chastised for needless extravagance. In 1642, the head office of the Coromandel operations shifted from Masulipatnam to Madras. For this decision, Day received the support of the agent of Masulipatnam, Andrew Cogan. The support made a difference, for Cogan was both influential and forceful. In 1657, Fort St George ceased to be subordinate to Bantam, as it had been until then, and was elevated to the position of an independent trading station. Day returned to England in 1645. Not much is known about his life and career after this.
Unlike Surat or Masulipatnam, where the English merely had the right to reside and conduct trade, in the Fort St George they were landlords. It was a precarious title, but nonetheless did make the Company a territorial power on a small scale. In order to hold on to that power without the help of local rulers, the Madras authorities built a wall around the six square miles over which they had proprietary rights and protected it with a garrison. The wall and the garrison were again expenses considered ill-advised by London. The first colonial city in India came up inside these walls. Just outside the walls, a large colony of artisans and service providerscame to live. Later designated ‘white’ and ‘black’ towns respectively, in the 1670s, these two areas, already sharply demarcated, were described by John Fryer as the Christian Town and the Heathen Town. Thomas Bowrey, a private merchant who left a record of the place in the 1670s, reckoned that the two settlements together had a population of 40,000, which was a good size for a purely commercial town of this time. Many amongst the wealthier Indians of the town were Tamil artisans and Telugu merchants.
European settlements in the Coromandel were periodically exposed to territorial disputes. The Chandragiri kings who had granted the English the title to Madras were caught up in succession wars in the 1640s. Golconda, Bijapur and the Nayakas of Madura, Tanjore and Gingee became embroiled in a struggle for mastery over southern Deccan. The Dutch and the English settlements were alternately protected and threatened by these rivals. In 1646, a new threat materialized from the north, a combined Mughal army under Mir Jumla which defeated the rebellious Nayakas and came within two days’ march from Madras. Mir Jumla returned after confirming the English right to continue trading. The fact that his own army depended heavily on European gunners and generals may have played a part in this decision. More important to thesurvival of the Europeans settlements was the strength of their own military power, which could withstand attacks by the armies that the local states were able to put up.
A difficult problem was raised when the shadow of English politics fell on Madras in 1665. Edward
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