From East India Company to British Raj

[muqawwee123]

Re: From East India Company to British Raj

@calypsodc

Would East India Company have become so successful if they did not have Mughal Patronage which gave them exclusive rights to reside and build factories ? By 1647, they had established 23 factories and gradually the bigger factories became walled forts. In 1634, (I think Shah Jahan) also waived custom duties. King CharlesII provisioned the EIC (in a series of five acts around 1670) with the rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops and form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the acquired areas. Basically, our rulers were sleeping with their eyes wide open when all this was going on and made concessions based on poor decisions.

Did Mughals have any options not to accommodate them in the absence of any skills giving them power over sea routes. I remember reading that Bahadur Shah was the first mughal emperor to see sea

As I mentioned in OP, Mughals had contracts with Portuguese for safe travel (especially pilgrims to Saudia) and when Portuguese faced defeat from British, Mughals had to rely on British.