Y8 History

The rise of the British Raj in IndiaThe rise of the British Raj in India

Unit 3

Lesson 1 Setting the scene

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What I did not want us to start out withWhat I did not want us to start out with

• The ideas that India was a backward country with little culture and even less development

• I hoped with your help we could get a flavour of what went before.

• This term we are going to look at what happened in India from 1600 – this was when the English arrived, not to conquer but to trade.

• But in fact their original idea was not to concentrate on India at all, but to look further east in search of spicesspices.

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Why spices?Why spices?

• Spices preserved food that was on the point of going off, covered up its foul taste and added taste and obscured nasty smells.

• Europe had used spices for centuries. These had been acquired by the land and sea route.

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Why spices?Why spices?

• But once Vasco De Gama has travelled around the Cape of Good Hope (Southern Africa) to India by sea, other possibilities opened up. But it took a while.

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One problem …One problem …

• Asia used to be known as “The East Indies”. Pepper, spices, medicinal drugs, aromatic woods, perfumes and silks were rare commodities in Europe, and therefore valuable. Trading in them could make you a fortune. And for this chance many were willing to risk their lives.

• But it was very dangerous. The outward voyage took 18 months or more. Then there was trading deals to be agreed followed by the trip home – in total, those investing in ships and men had to wait for 4 years or more to see their profit – assuming, of course that the ship(s) returned and were not lost at sea

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The playersThe players

• There were three great empires in Asia:– the Ottoman Turkish– the Mughal – the Chinese

• Each was wealthy and sophisticated and had its own international trading network. How could Europe open up its own trading routes to Asia?

• Rome, Constantinople and Venice had all created successful trade links with the East over land. But this was only a beginning.

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First of all the PortugueseFirst of all the Portuguese

• The “sea route to the Indes” was opened after Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498 crossed the Indian Ocean to reach Calicut, a rich trading city on the Indian coast.

• Aggressive and heavily armed, the Portuguese established a chain of coastal trading posts extending from East Africa to Japan and effectively gained control over the lucrative spice trade.

• And because they had a monopoly, they began to put the prices up – the price of pepper rose 300%!

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Then the Dutch get involvedThen the Dutch get involved

• The Dutch used their merchant fleet – the largest in Europe - to distribute Asian imports from Lisbon. As a result of working closely with the Portuguese they were able to collect valuable maps and sailing directions. The first Dutch trading voyage of 1595 returned with a cargo of pepper from Bantam.

• The race was on.

• With a head start, more money, more ships and a far more focused national purpose, they were to offer the English strong competition in the years ahead.

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The English want The English want to join in!to join in!

• By 1600 the Elizabethan Age was drawing to a close. The English were successful pirates and privateers and showed increasing superiority at sea (after all they had beaten the Spanish soundly – the other big naval power - in the Armada only 12 years before)

• But it must be remembered that London was still a relatively insignificant city and the country as a whole was comparatively poor. The British were still bit-part players on the European stage.

• However, a new English pride was taking shape and change and a commercial Renaissance were coming.

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The English want to join in!The English want to join in!

• Like the Dutch, the English wanted a key role in the spice trade. Following a year of fund raising and political negotiation, the ‘Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies’ was given ‘royal approval’ by a charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600.

• 218 subscribers to the new enterprise raised £68,373 – a massive amount* at a time. The Company was granted a monopoly on all English trade east of the Cape of Good Hope.

• All of Asia was theirs for the trading. • [* Comparison: they invested the

equivalent of £10,034,285!!]

Their coat of arms

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The first voyageThe first voyage•  The Company bought four ships for the first English Voyage

– the Dragon, Hector, Ascension and Susan. Carrying 500 men and 110 guns these set sail from London in February 1601 under the command of James Lancaster.

• More than 100 men had died by the time they rounded the Cape of Good Hope.

• It took 16 months to reach their first Asian port in Sumatra. • Pepper was available in neighbouring Java and it was here,

at Bantam, that Lancaster set up the first European trading post in 1602.

• All four ships returned safely to England in 1603, their holds full of pepper.

• The East India Company was in business.

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On board the shipsOn board the ships

• Conditions on board were always cramped, unsanitary and difficult. An early East Indiaman was rarely more than 37 metres long by 11 metres wide. That’s only about four times the length and width of a London bus!

• The seamen’s diet grew worse as a voyage progressed. Food was hard-baked bread, beer, cider, wine, dry salted beef, pickled pork and dried peas and beans.

• Fresh fish surprisingly played little part. Some ships carried chaplains and doctors; but as women at this time generally didn’t travel, female passengers were few and far between.

• Life at sea was hard. Asian ports harboured many unknown diseases against which the seamen had no resistance. Those on board risked enemy action, accidental fire and storms.

• Shipwreck was the greatest danger, though in fact only 5% of voyages were total losses.

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What did the English have to offer Asia?What did the English have to offer Asia?

• There was no international currency at the time so they had very little apart from silver to offer.

• England made very high quality woollen textiles. But for humid climates they were simply not suitable.

• The Company’s merchants knew this, but the monopoly charter obliged them to export a percentage of their cargoes in English products.

• So the ships carried the woollen cloth along with unwrought metals, looking-glasses and re-exported goods like coral and ivory.

• Guns were rarely traded though this was one area where England was technically superior.

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Where is Bantam?Where is Bantam?

• Bantam (spelt Banten on the map) is now just a few ruins and a mosque

• But in the 16th Century its kingdom covered most of western Java and Southern Sumatra.

• Pepper made Bantam rich, transforming it into one of the largest cities in Southeast Asia.

• It was here that the Company established its first Asian ‘factory’ [a trading post] - a place where factors, or Company reps, lived and traded.

• And it was from here that the English were able to expand into other parts of Asia. 

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The marketThe market• The great daily market at Bantam was cosmopolitan and

thriving. There the English met Arab, Turkish, Iranian, Gujarati, Tamil, Bengali, Malay, Javanese and Chinese merchants who were selling products from their own countries. The market bought and sold an incredible range of exotic goods.

• The English had their woollen cloth but it soon became clear that they would do better to barter with other Asian goods, especially Indian textiles.

• Bantam had existed as a city from at least the 11th century but it was during the 16th century that it rose to be an international port. The Kingdom of Bantam was created around 1527. Despite religious differences, trade with the Portuguese flourished, while the Chinese came in ever increasing numbers.

• http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/trading/flash_bantam.html

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How did they communicate?How did they communicate?

• Few Europeans, except Jesuit priests and other Catholic missionaries, knew how to speak any of the Asian languages. While the English found a smattering of Portuguese useful to begin with, Malay had long been used by the Chinese as the lingua franca in Southeast Asia.

• As factories were set up beyond the Malay world, the Company began to send out apprentice boys to learn the basics of the local language before it would employ them. Relationships with local women and just listening to their Asian employees made linguists of others.

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But this trade could not continue like this But this trade could not continue like this for longfor long

• But trading silver for spices could not work in the long term. The British needed some useful goods to trade, and at the time, broadcloth was our most valuable product and so there had to be a way…

• The English needed to dispose of their broadcloth and to find other Asian goods for barter. They also wanted to restock the national silver reserves.

• In 1611 they took thousands of pieces of Indian textiles by force from Gujarati vessels at the entrance to the Red Sea. Because they did not regard themselves as pirates they made sure that they handed over broadcloth in return. In their eyes ‘exchange was no robbery’!

• But they did find a legitimate niche market or 2 for their broadcloth. It was of such fine quality, it was always useful as a present, even if what you do is put it on the floor. Even now, you can find specimens of English broadcloth in Japan lining the boxes in which sets of samurai armour are kept. The bright red colour turned out to be quite popular for furnishing Chinese temples, because red is a lucky colour. They even managed to sell some in the Yemen, where they were trading for coffee. The supposition there is that it was used mainly to line the insides of wealthy men's tents and as blankets for camels.

• But you're not going to get rich exporting broadcloth.

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What really needed was a good supply What really needed was a good supply of cotton clothof cotton cloth

• They could not depend on capturing supplies. So they need a trading post were is was available in quantity.

• Indian textiles were much sought after. They had fabulous designs which were, very importantly, die-fast so they could be washed without losing their amazing colours.

• Over centuries a village-based hand loom industry had evolved in India. The three main production centres were Gujarat, Coromandel Coast and Bengal. They produced enormous quantities of different kinds of cloth or ‘piece goods’ as the Company called them.

• The Portuguese already had fortified strongholds in India but the English needed imperial permission to set up their own trading posts.

• In 1608 William Hawkins, commander of the Hector, was sent to ask the Mughal Emperor. He impressed Jahangir with his grasp of Turkish and ability to drink wine but failed to get agreement for an English factory. It took the arrival of a ‘proper’ ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe, sent by King James I in 1615, before the Company was able to set up a base in India.

• By paying three and a half per cent import tax, he imported English cloth and metals and exported calico to England. His trading ideas worked. This set the trend and calico, a most desirous cloth in Europe set the fashion.

• Surat became the first British toe-hold in India

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What kind of place did they discover?What kind of place did they discover?

• The Mughal Empire covered northern and central India. It was perhaps the world’s most civilised centre of power. Its glittering court at Agra, Delhi and Lahore, was filled with all the magnificence and luxury that Asia could supply.

• Asians and Europeans were mutually curious. The Emperor Jahangir (c. 1605-1627), like his father Akbar, prided himself as a connoisseur and an artistic patron. He was very interested in the outside world and his many court artists were kept busy, copying and interpreting examples of European life.

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Yemen

IranSurat

Bantam