ABSTRACT
The English colonies of the seventeenth century were founded by a variety of agencies and assumed many forms. The presence of Englishmen in Barbados, Maryland or Virginia was proof per se of local English sovereignty and colonisation. The East India Company’s monopoly of English trade with Asia, with only minor exceptions, was of paramount importance throughout the seventeenth century. A highly complex international commerce already existed in Asia in which, with minor exceptions, the English could participate freely. In western Asia, English free trade was opposed by the Portuguese, who held fortresses at Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, Muscat on the Arabian coast, and Goa on the west coast of India. The superior attractions of the Indian markets probably ensured a preponderance of English investment there, even though the actual English investment in Indonesia was greater in the 1660s and 1670s than it had ever been.
