Editing East India Company (section)

== Origins ==
{{further|Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)}}{{Colonial India}}[[File:Jameslancaster.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|[[James Lancaster]] commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601]]
In 1577, [[Francis Drake]] set out on [[Francis Drake's circumnavigation|an expedition]] from England to plunder Spanish settlements in South America in search of gold and silver. Sailing in the ''[[Golden Hind]]'' he achieved this, and then sailed across the Pacific Ocean in 1579, known then only to the Spanish and Portuguese. Drake eventually sailed into the [[East Indies]] and came across the [[Maluku Islands|Moluccas]], also known as the Spice Islands, and met [[Babullah of Ternate|Sultan Babullah]]. In exchange for linen, gold, and silver, the English obtained a large haul of exotic spices, including cloves and nutmeg. Drake returned to England in 1580 and became a hero; his circumnavigation raised an enormous amount of money for England's coffers, and investors received a return of some 5,000 percent. Thus started an important element in the eastern design during the late sixteenth century.<ref name="Lawson2">{{Cite book |last=Lawson |first=Philip |title=The East India Company: A History |year=1993 |publisher=Longman |location=London |isbn=978-0-582-07386-9 |url=https://www.questia.com/library/1876665/the-east-india-company-a-history |access-date=11 November 2014 |archive-date=12 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141112002757/https://www.questia.com/library/1876665/the-east-india-company-a-history |url-status=live |page=2 }}</ref>

Soon after the [[Spanish Armada]]'s defeat in 1588, the captured [[Spain|Spanish]] and Portuguese ships and cargoes enabled English voyagers to travel the globe in search of riches.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Desai |first1=Tripta |title=The East India Company: A Brief Survey from 1599 to 1857 |date=1984 |publisher=Kanak Publications |page=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JdoKAQAAIAAJ |access-date=17 May 2020 |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727145519/https://books.google.com/books?id=JdoKAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> London merchants presented a petition to [[Elizabeth I]] for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean.<ref name="igi-ii-p454">{{Cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Imperial Gazetteer of India |volume=II |year=1908 |page=454 |title=Early European Settlements |url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/gazetteer/pager.html?objectid=DS405.1.I34_V02_489.gif&volume=2 |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=25 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225230756/https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/gazetteer/pager.html?objectid=DS405.1.I34_V02_489.gif&volume=2 |url-status=live}}</ref> The aim was to deliver a decisive blow to the Spanish and Portuguese monopoly of far-eastern trade.<ref name="Wernham">{{cite book |last=Wernham |first=R.B |author-link=R. B. Wernham |year=1994 |title=The Return of the Armadas: The Last Years of the Elizabethan Wars Against Spain 1595–1603 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |pages=333–334 |isbn=978-0-19-820443-5}}</ref> Elizabeth granted her permission and in 1591, [[James Lancaster]] in the {{ship|English ship|Bonaventure|1567|2}} with two other ships,<ref name="Holmes">{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Sir George Charles Vincent |title=Ancient and Modern Ships Part I |date=1900 |publisher=Chapman & Hall |location=London |pages=93, 95 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ND8EAAAAMAAJ |access-date=29 May 2022 |ref=Holmes |language=en}}</ref> financed by the [[Levant Company]], sailed from England around the [[Cape of Good Hope]] to the [[Arabian Sea]], becoming the first English expedition to reach India that way.<ref name="Holmes"/><ref name="Anarchy">{{cite book |last1=Dalrymple |first1=William |author-link=William Dalrymple (historian) |title=The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company |year=2021 |orig-year=First published 2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |location=London |isbn=978-1-5266-3401-6 |page=xxxv <!-- Note: in the 2019 edition, the first numbered page is xiv, whereas in the 2021 edition, it is xviii --> |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HUMIEAAAQBAJ |access-date=29 May 2022}}</ref>{{rp|5}} Having sailed around [[Cape Comorin]] to the [[Malay Peninsula]], they preyed on Spanish and Portuguese ships there before returning to England in 1594.<ref name="igi-ii-p454" />

The biggest prize that galvanised English trade was the seizure of a large Portuguese [[carrack]], the ''[[Madre de Deus]]'', by [[Walter Raleigh]] and the [[George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland|Earl of Cumberland]] at the [[Battle of Flores (1592)|Battle of Flores]] on 13 August 1592.<ref name=McCulloch>{{cite book|author1=McCulloch, John Ramsay|title=A Treatise on the Principles, Practice, & History of Commerce|date=1833|publisher=Baldwin and Cradock|page=[https://archive.org/details/atreatiseonprin00goog/page/n138 120]|url=https://archive.org/details/atreatiseonprin00goog|author1-link=John Ramsay McCulloch}}</ref> When she was brought in to [[Dartmouth, Devon|Dartmouth]] she was the largest vessel ever seen in England and she carried chests of jewels, pearls, gold, silver coins, [[ambergris]], cloth, tapestries, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, [[Benzoin (resin)|benjamin]] (a highly aromatic balsamic resin used for perfumes and medicines), red dye, [[cochineal]] and ebony.<ref>{{cite book|last=Leinwand|first=Theodore B.|title=Theatre, Finance and Society in Early Modern England|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-64031-8|pages=125–127|url=https://archive.org/details/theatrefinanceso0000lein/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater|url-access=registration|series = Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture}}</ref> Equally valuable was the ship's [[Rutter (nautical)|rutter]] (mariner's handbook) containing vital information on the [[Old China Trade|China]], India, and Japan trade routes.<ref name=McCulloch />

In 1596, three more English ships sailed east but all were lost at sea.<ref name="igi-ii-p454" /> A year later however saw the arrival of [[Ralph Fitch]], an adventurer merchant who, with his companions, had made a remarkable nine year overland journey to [[Mesopotamia]], the [[Persian Gulf]], the Indian Ocean, India and Southeast Asia.<ref>'Ralph Fitch: An Elizabethan Merchant in Chiang Mai; and 'Ralph Fitch's Account of Chiang Mai in 1586–1587' in: Forbes, Andrew, and Henley, David, ''Ancient Chiang Mai'' Volume 1. Chiang Mai, Cognoscenti Books, 2012.</ref> Fitch was consulted on Indian affairs and gave even more valuable information to Lancaster.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Prasad |first1=Ram Chandra |title=Early English Travellers in India: A Study in the Travel Literature of the Elizabethan and Jacobean Periods with Particular Reference to India |date=1980 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=9788120824652 |page=45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nUx8ZzIHBsC&pg=PA45 |access-date=17 May 2020 |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727133757/https://books.google.com/books?id=4nUx8ZzIHBsC&pg=PA45 |url-status=live}}</ref>