Excerpt from The English Factories in India; 1630-1633: A Calendar of Documents in the India Office, Bombay Record Office, Etc During the period here dealt with, India suffered from a severe famine, which extended over the whole country with the exception of the northern river basins. The resul tant loss of life was terrible; and amongst other effects was a general cessation of cultivation and manufacture, entailing a corresponding shrinkage in the export trade. The English merchants suffered with the rest, but with characteristic energy they turned their attention to the development of fresh sources of profit. On the one hand, they found employment for their ships in carrying Indian and Persian merchants with their goods to and from Gom broon; on the other, they made special efforts to Open up trade in the Bay of Bengal, establishing factories at Hari harpur (near Cuttack) and at Balasore. A further (though less direct) result of the diminution Of commerce caused by the famine was the commencement of negotiations for an understanding with the Portuguese, which would, it was hoped, not only extend the area of English trade, but also lead to a considerable reduction of expense. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.