Dutch Suratte

Nederlandse vestiging van Suratte
1616–1825
Flag Coat of arms
Dutch Suratte (in yellow) within Dutch India
Status	Factory
Capital	Suratte
Common languages	Dutch
Director
• 1620–1628	Pieter van den Broecke
• 1673–1676	Willem Volger
• 1699–1701	Hendrick Zwaardecroon
• 1729–1740	Pieter Phoonsen
• 1818–1825	Conrad Josef Gustaf van Albedyll
Historical era	Imperialism
• Establishment of a trading post at Suratte	1616
• Handover to the British according to the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824	21 December 1825
Preceded by Succeeded by Mughal Empire Company rule in India

Dutch Suratte, officially Nederlandse vestiging van Suratte (Dutch settlement in Surat), was a directorate of the Dutch East India Company between 1616 and 1795, with its main factory in the city of Surat. Surat was an important trading city of the Mughal Empire on the river Tapti, and the Portuguese had been trading there since 1540. In the early 17th century, Portuguese traders were displaced by English and Dutch traders.

Due to internal unrest in the Mughal Empire, Surat's trade with the Mughal capital of Agra gradually declined in the early 18th century, with most trade shifting to Bombay, the new capital of the English Western Presidency. The city became part of British India as a consequence of the Third Carnatic War (1756–1763).^[1] While traders of the Dutch East India Company continued trading in Surat, they had become subordinate to the English.^[2]

The Dutch possessions in Surat were occupied by British forces in 1795 by instruction of Dutch stadtholder William V, who wanted to prevent revolutionary France from taking possession of the Dutch holdings in Asia. It was restored to the Dutch in 1818, but again ceded to the English in 1825, owing to the provisions of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.