Consider the following statements:
1. The Dutch East India Company was primarily interested in the spice trade with the far east.
2. The Dutch East India Company traded Indian merchandise to purchase spices from the far east.
3. The Dutch East India Company had all their factories on the eastern coast of India.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 3 only
(b) 1 only
(c) 1 and 2 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Explanation Statement 1 is correct: The Dutch East India Company was formed in 1602 through a charter. The Dutch were primarily interested in spice trade. Therefore, they paid more attention to the Far East. India was just a trading depot for them.
Statement 2 is correct but Statement 3 is not correct: The Dutch established factories on the Coromandel coast, in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, and Bihar. In 1609, they opened a factory in Pulicat, north of Madras. Their other principal factories in India were at Surat (1616), Bimlipatam (1641), Karaikal (1645), Chinsura (1653), Baranagar, Kasimbazar (near Murshidabad), Balasore, Patna, Nagapatam (1658), and Cochin (1663). Participating in the redistributive or carrying trade, they took to the islands of the Far East various articles and merchandise from India. They carried indigo manufactured in the Yamuna valley and Central India, textiles and silk from Bengal, Gujarat and the Coromandel, saltpetre from Bihar, and opium and rice from the Ganga valley.
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