Historical Europe-Asia Trade Relations

Historical Europe-Asia Trade Relations
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Historical Europe-Asia Trade Relations
Explorations and the discovery of formerly unknown world regions necessarily lead to trade because of the incentive of acquiring products unique to certain areas. Depending on the geographical and sociopolitical aspects, challenges indeed abound. While Europe discovered India in the reign of Alexander the Great, active trade engagements are traced from the sixteenth century. The Europe-Asia trade brought together the highly ambitious King James I and Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal empire.
The precedent establishment of the Portuguese in the region initially barred the Europe-Asia trade. Through its missionary endeavors, the Portuguese had the privilege of evaluating the economic potential of foreign areas. The Portuguese fleet dominated the trade networks. As a result, the English could initiate meaningful business engagement in the region until they could overthrow the Portuguese because of competing interests. Fortunately, the English toppled the Portuguese in 1612 in the battle of Swally, paving the way for the establishment of factories in the region (Bentley et al., 2015, p.249). The British East India Company, which was chartered at the onset of the seventeenth century to facilitate trade exploitation endeavors, represented the interests of the English traders.
Even after its breakthrough in the region, the British East India company faced stiff competition from the equally colossal Dutch East India Company, formed in 1602 for similar trade exploitation in Asia. The rivalry emanated from sourcing a common commodity, namely spices, from the spice island (Bentley et al., 2015, p.209). Both companies desired to monotonize the spice trade in the region. The parent countries sought any viable strategy to outmaneuver each other. Interestingly, given the political organization of the area as an empire, the English accused the Dutch society of political instability because it lacked a king or a kingdom, for that matter. The efforts to establish ties between the emperor Jahangir and King James I corroborated the tactic. King sent an ambassador to the court, the Mughal Court. ...