Dupleix and Clive - The beginning of Empire

Abstract

"AT the beginning of the eighteenth century the relations between Madras and Pondichery had been very friendly. The French settlement was in its infancy. The popula- tion was small, and its fortifications even for India feeble, when England and Holland were in arms against France in the War of the Spanish Succession. Its founder and governor, Francois Martin, had reason to fear that his work would again be ruined, as it had aheady been by the Dutch in 1696. He therefore induced Pitt, Governor of Madras, to enter into a treaty of neutrality under which the men and ships of the two settlements were not to attack each other. When Martin believed that the Dutch were preparing to besiege Pondichery, French goods were sent to the EngUsh settlement for safety. When a French squadron appeared in Indian waters and began to seize Enghsh shipping, the Pondichdry Council did its best to hmit its captures, and to secure good terms of ransom for English prizes, while the English were so obliging as to remit the proceeds of the French prizes to Bengal for the French investment."