The founders of the East India Company greatly value the eyewitness reports of Ralph Fitch, who in the 1580s had been among the first Englishmen to travel through India and Southeast Asia, on all that he had seen in his travels; they consult him on Indian affairs.

During this time ships belonging to the company arrive in India, commanded by Captain William Hawkins and docking at the Gujarat port of Sura on August 24, 1608.

He carries twenty-five thousand pieces of gold and a personal letter to the Mughal Emperor Jehangir (sometimes also rendered as Cehangir or Ichan Guire) from King James I seeking trade concessions.

Captain Hawkins has persisted at Surat for over two years.

Portuguese pirates have stolen his gold, and tried several times to murder him while on shore.

He returns to England empty-handed.

The next envoy, Paul Canning, lasts only a few months.

...eventually reaching Surat on September 5.

The principal port for the Mughals, Surat is at this time situated at the mouth of the river Tapti.

Surat had eclipsed Khambhat as the major port of western India, when Khambhat's harbor began to silt up by the end of fifteenth century.

The Portuguese traveler Duarte Barbosa in 1514 had described Surat as an important seaport, frequented by many ships from Malabar and various parts of the world. (There still today a picturesque fortress on the banks of the river built in 1540.)

A village in the suburbs of Suat is Barbodhan Village, possibly named after the explorer Duarte Barbosa (it derives from "Bab-ul-Aden"—Doorway to Aden, Yemen—where it has strong cultural and trading links).

During the reigns of the Mughal emperors Akbar and Jahangir, Surat has risen to become the chief commercial city of India and an imperial mint has been established here.

As the major port on the west coast of India, Surat also serves as the port for the Hajj to Mecca.

The Portuguese at the end of the sixteenth century had been undisputed masters of the Surat sea trade.

Coincidentally, a squadron of sixteen Portuguese barks sails into Surat on September 13, 1612.

Captain Best decides on September 22  to send an emissary to the Emperor asking for permission to trade and settle a factory at Surat.

If refused he plans to quit the country.

This may have been partly because King James I had extended the Company's charter in 1609 on the basis that it would be canceled if no profitable ventures were concluded within three years.

Captain Best receives word on  September 30 that two of his men, Mr. Canning (the purser) and William Chambers, had been arrested while on shore.

Fearing the worst, Captain Best detains a ship belonging to the Governor of Gujarat and offers to release it in exchange for his men.

The prosperity of Surat, at this time the primary port of India and a key Mughal power center, had received a fatal blow with the cession of Bombay to England as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza.

The city had been made the seat of a presidency under the British East India Company after the success of the embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the court of emperor Jehangir.

The Dutch had also founded a factory.

Now at its zenith, Surat, generating a million rupees in annual tax revenues, is popularly viewed as the city of Kubera, the God of Wealth.

The Maratha King Shivaji in 1664, draws up before the the wealthy port town, demanding tribute from the Mughal commander of the army stationed for port security.

The tribute is refused by the commander, who then fails in an attempt to have Shivaji assassinated.

Shivaji conquers the city and his forces sack Surat for nearly three weeks, looting both the Mughal and Portuguese trading centers.

The poor are spared, however, and no men or women molested or taken as slaves.

Sir John Child, whose autocratic behavior as president of Surat, where the British East India Company had established their first Indian factory (trading post) in 1612), had led in 1683 to Keigwin's unsuccessful rebellion in Bombay, had been made a baronet in 1684.

The first person to be placed in control of all the Company's trading establishments in India, he is, like Sir Josiah Child, the powerful governor of the company in London, utterly unscrupulous and has a passion for intrigue (the two Childs are stated by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography to be unrelated).

Following orders from London, Child becomes involved in war with Aurangzeb, whose troops capture Surat and force Child to make peace.

One of the peace terms requires Child to leave India, but he dies in 1690 while the matter is still pending.

Narayanrao (August 10, 1755 – August 30, 1773) had become Peshwa of the Maratha Empire after the death of his brother Madhavrao Peshwa in 1772.

Madhavrao had been a minor when appointed Peshwa.

Raghunathrao, appointed as the regent to the young Peshwa, had soon fallen out of favor with Madhavrao and even tried to conspire against him by joining the Nizam of Hyderabad against the Peshwa.

The alliance had been defeated at Ghodegaon, and Raghunathrao had been placed under house arrest.

After Madhavrao I's death, Raghunathrao had been released from house arrest.

He then became the regent of Madhavrao's younger brother Narayanrao.

Together with his wife Anandibai, he has his nephew Narayanrao murdered by his palace guards in August 1773.

Narayanrao's widow, Gangabai, had given birth to a posthumous son, who was legal heir to the throne.

The newborn infant is named 'Sawai' Madhavrao (Sawai means "One and a Quarter").

Twelve Maratha chiefs, led by Nana Phadnavis, direct an effort to name the infant as the new Peshwa and rule under him as regents.

Raghunathrao had been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by the justice Ram Shastri Prabhune but the sentence has never been carried out.

At Kasegaon near Pandharpur the first battle between the Baarbhai and Raghobadada takes place in 1774.

Raghunathrao, unwilling to give up his position of power, goes to Khambhat with hope of getting help from the British, who do not help but transport him to Surat from their ship. 

Here he signs the Treaty of Surat on March 6, 1775.

According to the treaty, Raghunathrao cedes the territories of Salsette and Bassein to the British, along with part of the revenues from Surat and Bharuch districts.

In return, the British promise  to provide Raghunathrao with twenty-five hundred soldiers.