Map of the East Indies and adjacent Countries

British East India Company Enters India Trade. In 1600 the British East India Company was established with royal charter from Queen Elizabeth I, for the specific purpose of establishing trade with India. In addition to the aspiration to participate in the spice and commodities trade that had commercial value to Europe, the British viewed Portuguese and Dutch expansion into India with alarm. A letter from Charles D'Avenan, a strong proponent for British expansion and domination into overseas territories to the Marquis of Normandy, the writer elaborates on the importance of British presence in India thus: "But since Europe has tasted of this luxury, since the customs of a hundred years has made their spices necessary to the constitutions of all degrees of people, since their silks are pleasing everywhere to the better sort, and since their calicoes are a useful wear at home, and in our own plantations, and for the Spaniards in America, it can never be advisable for England to quit this trade, and leave it to any other nation" (Charles D'Avenan, 1697, to the Most Honourable John Lord Marquis of Normandy, The Avalon Project, Yale University).

One of the earliest establishments of the British East India company in India was at Fort Gt. George, Madras (Chennai). This map of the East Indies, done for the Directors of the British East India Company by the early 18th century geographer/cartographer Herman Moll, is titled "A map of the East Indies and the adjacent Countries, with the settlements, factories and territories, explaining what belongs to England, France, Holland, Denmark, Portugal &c, with many remarks not extant in any other Map." On the section of India, regions rich in commodities of European trade; pepper, diamonds, and cotton cloth are highlighted.

Insets in the map shows the major commercial centers of India and South east Asia. The inset of Fort St. George, Madras identifies separate White Town and Black Town, English, Armenian, Portuguese, Moorish, Jewish and Pagan burying places, suggesting that English were just one of the communities trading there and that though the communities interacted in trade they kept separate communal identities. Herman Moll the cartographer of this map had never travelled in India or Asia. And as in the case of the documents on botany and medicinal plant knowledge published by the Portuguese, Dutch and British authors, cartography and map making were also collaborative enterprises.