The Diplomatic Repertoires of the East India Companies in Mughal South Asia, 1608–1717

Abstract

This article presents the first survey of the full range of diplomatic interactions between the Mughal Empire and the English and Dutch East India Companies (EIC and VOC) in the period 1608–1717. It proposes a typology of the six different modes of diplomacy practised by the EIC and VOC as a means to understand better the distinct nature of corporate diplomacy. Moving its focus beyond exceptional embassies, this article demonstrates that by far the most common forms of Company diplomatic activity consisted of low-profile petitioning at the imperial centre and ongoing political interactions with provincial and local power-holders. It draws on c. fifty distinct episodes to chart how Dutch and English diplomatic repertoires in South Asia took shape in response to local demands and conventions. Both Companies petitioned Mughal emperors in much the same way as Indian subjects did, and both relied on Mughal patrons to do so. Cast in the role of supplicants seeking imperial favour and protection, Company envoys presented themselves as obliging participants in the ceremonial performance of an asymmetrical relationship. By tying commercial privileges to expectations of submission and service, the imperial government proceeded to incorporate these foreign actors into a domestic political framework.

Revisiting the expansion thesis: international society and the role of the Dutch East India company as a merchant empire

“…The following section uses the example of VOC diplomacy to further show that norms of international society cannot be viewed as the sole privilege of a European inheritance. It would be historically inaccurate to continue the aristocratic myth of diplomacy in which Europeans and Asians always had an 'incommensurability' of diplomatic cultures (Meersbergen, 2019).…”

“…However, the absence of a monarch in the Dutch Republic proved useful in negotiations with other Asian powers. The diplomats of the VOC were commissioned by the company and not by the Dutch States General (Meersbergen, 2019). VOC emissaries therefore did not have to be concerned with representing the honour of a faraway monarch.…”

“…This was a conscious acceptance of submitting to local customs as trade with the Mughal court relied on requiring the backing of influential Mughal courtiers and showing ceremonial submission to imperial authority. Access to trading privileges depended on the VOC petitioning Mughal emperors and viceroys in much the same way as Indian subjects had to do (Meersbergen, 2019). Submission to the Mughal court was also beneficial to the emperor's authority.…”