In the early part of the eighteenth century the Duth East India Company came to have a supremacy over all British trade in India.
British power was most vulnerable at sea and the Dutch took advantage of this position and thus gained control over a large portion of English trading posts in India.
The Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The merchants of this company came to India and established their settlements at Masulipattinam, Pulicat, Surat, Karaikal, Nagapattinam, Chinsura and Kasimbazar.
In the seventeenth century they won over the Portuguese and emerged the most dominant power in European trade in the East. Pulicat was their main centre in India and later it was replaced by Nagapattinam.
In the middle of the seventeenth century the English began to emerge as a big colonial power. The Anglo-Dutch rivalry lasted for about seven decades during which period the Dutch lost their settlements to the British one by one.