Corporate Warfare

This is a fascinating collection of personal reflections and historical anecdotes! I’ve polished the text to fix the grammar and typos while maintaining your authentic, conversational voice.

Corporate Warfare

What I found fascinating while reading history were the fights between these companies. I am not referring to the Carnatic Wars, where the French and British sided with opposing local factions; I am talking about wars and attacks where one European company directly attacked another with no local princes involved.

The first attack occurred when the French occupied Fort St. George sometime in the 1740s. This was actually pivotal because it was when the European powers realized their own strength. The Nawab of Arcot tried to come to the English’s rescue, but a small band of Frenchmen defeated the Nawab's army. This was the first instance of superior European weaponry establishing dominance over a far larger local army. During my last visit to Madras, I stayed at the Leela Palace. From the breakfast area, you can see where the Adyar River joins the Bay of Bengal—that was perhaps where this famous battle was fought.

The second attack was when the Dutch occupied Pondicherry in the 1690s. The way I learned about this was fascinating: I had bought a random copper coin. One side had the standard Dutch Kali iconography, but the reverse had "Pudu" written in Tamil. I was super confused until I did some reading and realized the Dutch held Puducherry for six years and issued coins during that time. This is that coin; it is indexed as 12.6 in my collection.

The Company and Me

First, I’ll get through the obvious: I was born in Chennai (aka Madras), a "company town." The government of Chennai is still housed in Fort St. George. There are a number of streets and areas that derive their names from the Company, such as Parry’s Corner, George Town, and Washermanpet. When I run or drive alone, my companion is often V. Sriram and his fascinating videos on the history of Madras. My collection of coins if focused on the Madras Presidency and I have a fairly extensive collection.

I also lived for 6 years in Bombay; another company town. The story goes that the Bombay was given as dowry to the English King Charles II as dowry from the Portuguese when he married their princess.  It took the English a few years to find where Bombay was on the map :) And then a few years to force the Portuguese out.  The coolest coin from Bombay Presidency I have in my collection is the Copperoon! The date on the coin increments from 1665, the year Bombay was acquired. 

The very first company to set up shop was the Portuguese. Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut in 1498. The Portuguese quickly set up trading posts on the west coast and soon expanded to the east. Growing up in Chennai, I often passed the Santhome Basilica while driving from Mandavelli to Marina Beach. That was a Portuguese settlement; the story goes that they chose the location because they believed it was where the remains of St. Thomas the Apostle were buried. He had preached in the area around 50 AD. The Portuguese also built an edifice to honor St. Thomas on top of St. Thomas Mount, which can still be visited today.

One of my goals for my next trip to India is to visit the five other key trading posts near Madras:

  1. Pulicat: Originally Portuguese, then taken over by the Dutch.

  2. Tranquebar: Where the Danes had a fort.

  3. Nagapattinam: Held by the Dutch. Note that Nagapattinam is a very ancient town used by the Cholas; in fact, the Silappatikaram from the Sangam era refers to Poompuhar, a port near Nagapattinam.


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