• The first Viceroy was Francisco de Almeida who followed what is known as 'Blue Water Policy,' and accordingly, he added more ships to strengthen the navy rather than adding more settlements.
• He destroyed the fleet ofZamorin and a fleet sent by the Sultan of Egypt.
• He befriended the ruler of Cochin and built fortresses at Cochin, Kannur and other places on the Malabar coast

• A variety of coins were in circulation, there were money-changers or shroffs to test coins for their purity and decide their value in current terms.
• They also served as local bankers.
• Instead of transferring money as cash from one place to another, merchants issued bills of exchange, known as hundis which would be cashed by shroffs at different destinations at a specified rate of discount.

• Manufacturing - that is, handicraft production - was carried on both in urban and rural areas.
• Luxury crafts, like metalwork were urban based. Weaving was mostly done in rural areas. India had a great advantage in that cotton was grown in the country.
• Indian craft communities also possessed specialized knowledge about dyeing cotton using chemicals like alum to produce a permanent colour.

• Madras was ceded to East India Company in 1639 by the Raja of Chandragiri with permission to build a fortified factory which was named Fort St. George.
• This was the first landholding recorded by the Company on Indian soil.

• The Tamil region, presented a sharp contrast to the centralized stability of the Mughal empire in these decades.
• Politically the region was fragmented and unsettled. Under three Nayak kingdoms had been set up in the Tamil region: in Madurai, Thanjavur and Senji.