ABSTRACT

In Bombay Island, the English East India Company until the middle of the eighteenth century possessed but a toe-hold on the west coast of India. From the 1740s the Company's growing commercial and political interests in the region raised Bombay's status to that of an important urban settlement and a jewel in the crown of the EIC.3 A vivid description of the port and town of Bombay in these years is provided by James Forbes, intrepid traveller and author of the famous Oriental Memoirs. Forbes, who lived in Bombay and neighbouring places for seventeen years between 1766 and 1783, emphasized that Bombay's greatest asset was its excellent harbour. He termed it 'one of the finest in the world, accessible at all seasons and affording a safe anchorage during the most tempestuous monsoons ... ' Bombay's safe harbour, its many landing bays and docking sites made the island-town by the late eighteenth century, 'one of the finest marts in India (which) employed a great number of vessels in its extensive commerce'.4 A thriving trade

wascarriedonbetweenBombayandportsinChina,Indonesia,East Africa,theRedSea,aswellaswiththemanyportswhichdottedthe Indianshoreline.ButthegreaterpartofBombay'scoastalandoverseas tradewascontrolledbyIndianandEuropeanprivatetradersrather thantheEICandbythattimetheadministrationoftheCompany, whichfunctionedasacolonialstate,wasriddledwithproblemsand weaknesses.