Pondichery
Chronology:
The choice of Pondichéry to establish a port is relatively complex to understand,
non-existing roads , beaten by the cyclones, at the border of the Moghol Empire.
However Pondichery seems a place impossible to circumvent to establish a trading post
that since the time of Ptolémée when Pondichery was known under the name of Podouké.
Vestiges found near the mouth of the Ariancoupam river attest the existence of trading relations
between the Roman Empire and Podouké.
François MARTIN working for the Company of the Eastern Indies recently
created brought back the facts. Jacob Blanquet of the Hague who obtained the concession
of Poudou Cheri at Sher Khân Lodi thanks to the links created by Bellanger before.
François Martin started the fortification of the place, obtained the assistance of a local sovereign Da' oud Khân .
(the General of Moghol Auranzeb) to extend towards the south, but will not resist
to the Dutchmen and will have to flee with his family towards Chandernagor, another trading post
in Bengal. With the Treaty of Ryswick, he finally succeeded in making the Company,
the heart of the trade, such as Colbert wanted .
The trade of fabrics starts in Pondichery, with several villages of tisserands
who settle around. Very quickly, the production of these villages is forsaken for
trade of the cotton fabrics of the cities in the neighbourhoods such Salem, Chidambaram, Madurai
or Coimbatore. Later, with the opening of the road by the vessels of the company
towards China and the Middle East on the road of return towards Europe, one finds there in
cargoes of pepper, of the dyewood, gold and bullion, of the tea, the silk trade,
porcelains, rice and coffee.
One cannot speak about Pondichéry without speaking about Joseph-François DUPLEIX,
under its direction, with one of its brokers Ananda Ranga Plundered, gave its letters of nobility
with the company. Mrs. Dupleix helped it a time in this search, even if her relations,
with the company of the Jesuits, were harmful for the relations of good agreement enters
religions. Because they wanted that Pondichery is catholic. That generated
some problems whose English could benefit.
In 1740 the city counted 120 000 people of which Christians (White or converted),
mahométans (joined together around two mosques) and of nice (mainly of the dravidiens
of religion Hindu).
The war, in Europe between the two colonial powers, engaged the decline
of Pondichery. Following the Treaty of Paris, after the destruction of the fort
and the bankruptcy of the Company for which it had been created, Pondichéry is not any more
that a quiet borough. The serat city occupied twice still before becoming
definitively French and to remain it until its retrocession with the Indian Union.