(a) The European companies were gaining power by securing a variety of concessions from the local courts. It was very difficult for the Indian merchants and traders to face the competition as most of the European countries had huge resources. Some of the European companies got the monopoly rights to trade.

All this resulted in the decline of Surat Port by the end of the eighteenth century. In the last years of the seventeenth century, the gross value of trade that passed through Surat had been 16 million. By the 1740s, it had slumped to 3 million. With the passage of time, Surat and Hooghly decayed, while Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta (Kolkata) grew.

(b) The company tried to eliminate the existing traders and brokers connect with the cloth trade, and establish more direct control over the weavers. It appointed a paid servant called Gomastha to supervise weavers, collect supplies, and examine the quality of cloth.