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). While traders of the Dutch East India Company continued trading in Surat, they had become subordinate to the English.[1]
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.