The Asian Trade

• Firman


  A directive from the Emperor that would grant special trading rights across India
• Aurangzeb


  The Mugal Emperor of India
• Josiah Child


  Govenor of the East India Company from 1681
• The East India Company


  • Founded by Queen Elizabeth in 1600
  • Formed to carry out trade with south and southeast Asia
  • An entirely private business - no direct government involvement
• The EIC was granted special rights:

  • They could mint their own money
  • They could wage war
  • Granted a monopoly of English trade in Asia
  • Could run its own justice system
• What went well for the EIC?


  • After Child's war, the EIC established a small trading post in Calcutta from which it went on to dominate Indian trade
  • During those three years, shareholders bought shares in other companies, and in 1702 the EIC merged with these companies and carried on trading as before
  • The EIC benefitted from Britons who wanted luxury commodities from India, such as tea, silk, and coffee
• What went badly for the EIC?

  • The EIC waged war with Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor of India.
  • "Child's War" went horribly wrong, they surrendered and had to pay a huge fine
  • English weavers protested against the EIC and its cheap imports from India
  • In 1700, a new law made it illegal to bring Asian silk or cotton to England
  • The EIC was given three years to close itself down
• • Josiah Child waged war against Aurangzeb who broke off talks with the EIC as they tried to negotiate a firman
  • Aurangzeb won and the EIC had to pay a huge fine for trading rights
• The EIC's imports


  • Tea, porcelain and silk from China
  • Pepper, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and mace from Indonesia
  • Cotton, silk and saltpere from India
• The EIC's exports


  • Silver, cloth and metals to India
  • Cotton to West Africa
  • Tea to North America
• The opium trade


  • The EIC benefitted from Chinese addiction to opium
  • It exported poppies grown in India to China
  • It imported tea grown in India and China back to Britain
• • After the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, there were uprisings in India
  • Mughal rule weakened to the point that the Mughal emperor Farrukh Siyar granted the EIC a firman in 1717
  • This meant that the EIC could trade all over India duty-free for a small annual fee
• The firman led to the EIC ruling India and controlling half the world's trade by the end of the century