A History of India by Kulke Hermann; Rothermund Dietmar; & Dietmar Rothermund

Author:Kulke, Hermann; Rothermund, Dietmar; & Dietmar Rothermund [Hermann Kulke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317242116
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

French ambitions and reverses

Another major European power, which was destined to play an important part in the history of India in the eighteenth century, was also still rather insignificant in the Indian context of the late seventeenth century. In 1664 a French East India Company had been founded at the instigation of the energetic finance minister, Jean Baptiste Colbert, who enjoyed the full support of Louis XIV in this venture. A French viceroy, Jacob de la Haye, was sent to India in 1670 with a fleet of nine ships. This was the time of the third Anglo-Dutch war and, therefore, de la Haye hoped for British support against the Dutch in India. But the governor of Madras turned him down, saying that the wars of his king were of no concern to him as he had to obey only the orders of the directors of his company. The bold Frenchman thereupon tried to tackle the Dutch single-handed, but he suffered a miserable defeat, lost all his ships and was sent back to Europe as a prisoner on a Dutch ship. After this misadventure nothing much was heard about the French East India Company for some time. It was only due to the quiet endeavour of one man, François Martin, that the French East India Company gained a foothold in India at all. Martin arrived in India in 1668 and died there in 1706, without ever having left the country in all those years. The French settlement at Pondicherry owes its origin to this unique man. His observations and experiences provided guidelines for those ambitious Frenchmen who tried to build a French empire in India in the eighteenth century – the resourceful Governor Dupleix, the daring Admiral La Bourdonnais, and the diplomatic General de Bussy.

The commercial success of the French East India Company was much more limited than the imperial vision of those great Frenchmen. Colbert’s son and successor, the Marquis de Seignelay, had re-established the company in 1685. The company owned twelve ships, four of which returned from India every year. In peacetime the company could thus make some profit, although it was debarred from the lucrative textile trade because of French mercantilist policy. However, the frequent interruption of this trade due to European wars drove the company to the verge of bankruptcy. It was only when the great financial wizard John Law merged the French West Indies Company and the French East India Company in 1719 that France caught up with the new pattern of international trade, which linked Indian Ocean trade with transatlantic trade. The new Compagnie des Indes prospered in this way and also attracted merchant capital which had been lacking at earlier stages.

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