 The Port of Penang was established with the founding of George Town by Francis Light in 1786.Light, who had been tasked by the British East India Company to form trade relations in the Malay Peninsula, deduced that by obtaining Penang Island, the British could check Dutch and French territorial ambitions in Southeast Asia.Due to its location in the Malacca Strait along the maritime trade route between India and China, the island could be put to use as a ""convenient magazine for trade""; Light added that if ""Malay, Bugis and Chinese will come to reside here, it will become the Exchange of the East if not loaded with impositions and restrictions"".