The British established their first factory in India at Surat in 1613 with the permission of:

The English East India Company was founded in 1600, when Queen Elizabeth I granted it a royal charter giving it a monopoly of English trade with the East. Its first ships reached India in 1608, when Captain William Hawkins arrived at Surat and went to the court of the Mughal emperor Jahangir (ruled 1605-1627) at Agra to seek permission to trade. Jahangir was friendly to Hawkins and gave him a mansab, but opposition from the Portuguese, who were already influential at the court, prevented a lasting agreement.

In 1612, an English fleet under Captain Thomas Best defeated a Portuguese fleet at the Battle of Swally (Suvali), near Surat. Impressed by English naval strength, Jahangir issued a farman (royal order) in 1613 permitting the English to set up a permanent factory (trading post) at Surat. This was the first English factory on the Indian mainland. Surat, in Gujarat, was then the most important port of the Mughal Empire.

In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe arrived as the ambassador of King James I to Jahangir's court. He stayed until 1619 and obtained more trade privileges, including the right to trade and set up factories in all parts of the Mughal Empire.

Important early English settlements:

• Masulipatnam (1611): the first English factory on the east coast, in the Golconda kingdom.
• Surat (1613): the first permanent factory, and the Company's headquarters in western India until 1687, when it moved to Bombay.
• Madras (Fort St George, 1639-40).
• Bombay: received in 1668 from King Charles II, who got it as dowry from Portugal.
• Calcutta: founded by Job Charnock in 1690; Fort William was built later.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Akbar died in 1605, before the English got trading rights.
• ✗Shah Jahan ruled from 1628, after the factory was set up.
• ✗Aurangzeb ruled from 1658.