Sir Thomas Roe Secures East India Company Trading Rights
An English ambassador wins Jahangir's permission for the Company's first factory, at Surat
Quick facts
- Ambassador
- Sir Thomas Roe
- Years at court
- 1612 to 1619
- Result
- First East India Company factory, at Surat
What happened
Between 1612 and 1619 the English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe secured permission from the Mughal court for the East India Company to establish its first factory, a fortified trading post, at Surat on India's western coast. Roe spent time at Jahangir's court in Ajmer and traveled with the imperial retinue, and the encounter went both directions culturally: Roe showed Jahangir a miniature portrait by the English painter Isaac Oliver, which so impressed the emperor that he had a court artist copy it, then tested Roe's ability to tell the copies from the original.
Why it matters
The Surat factory was the first permanent English commercial foothold in Mughal India, the seed from which the East India Company's trading network, and eventually its territorial empire, grew. What began as a favor granted by a wealthy, secure Mughal court to European merchants would, within a century and a half, help produce the Company army that fought at Plassey.
How we know
The grant of trading rights and Roe's presence at Jahangir's court are documented in Roe's own journal of his embassy and referenced in the Jahangirnama; the Victoria and Albert Museum's history of Mughal art independently confirms the Isaac Oliver miniature exchange from the same period.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Timeline: Mughal Empire · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.
- Victoria and Albert Museum. The arts of the Mughal Empire · Reputable sourcevam.ac.uk · The domain "vam.ac.uk" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The British Empire → · The Surat factory was the first foothold of the trading company that later built British rule in India.