A survey of the English east India’s trade with Persian Gulf in the seventeenth century

Abstract

The Persian Gulf trade, along with the Red Sea trade, was a much sought after trade, especially with the arrival of European Companies viz. the Portuguese, the English and the Dutch. As the Portuguese trade declined to a considerable extent in the first half of the 17th century, the English and particularly the Dutch, took over this trade. It remained important till the end of the century, after which the English started concentrating more on their Indian trade from Bengal and Surat. The growing market in Europe of Indian textiles, especially cheap cotton and silk from Bengal, catered to by both the Dutch and the English East India Company, coupled with other reasons, proved to be a game-changer. In the first half of the eighteenth century, it was the private traders of the English East India Company who were benefitting instead from the Persian Gulf trade.