Portuguese East India Company Portuguese East India Company The Portuguese East India Company ( or ) was a short-lived ill-fated attempt by Philip III of Portugal to create a national chartered company to look after interests in Portuguese India in the face on encroachment by the Dutch and English following the personal union of the Portuguese and Spanish Crowns. Portuguese trade with India had been a crown monopoly since the Portuguese captain Vasco da Gama opened the sea route to India in 1497-99. The monopoly had been managed by the Casa da Índia, the royal trading house founded around 1500. The Casa was responsible
Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India warn that both the routes would explored by the Portuguese Crown. There is news of an Italian merchant who spread the good news in Florence. The merchant refers to Melinde. With the opening of the sea route to the East Indies, the Venetians, who controlled the trade of the Mediterranean, bought pepper from the Portuguese, at half the price they paid to the Arabs in Egypt. The fall of the Venetian monopoly on the spice trade in Europe and the resulting drop in prices of spices contributed to the commercial development of the continent. Portuguese discovery of the sea route