The Treaty of Seringapatam (1792) witnessed the transformation of English traders into virtual rulers of Malabar. The British authority over Malabar became complete. It was natural that they should attempt the expulsion of rival traders from the Malabar Coast. The Dutch and the Danes had already disappeared from the scene; the French alone remained. Their commercial prospects, it is said, actually depended on the connivancy of, or the extent of bribe received by, the Tellicherry Chief. They were in capable of embracing any other means to carry on trade.
The French Company was on the verge of collapse. Still their contention was that their trade rights could not either be questioned or hampered on the ground of Tipu’s cession of Malabar to the English. But the pretensions and claims of the French were ignored by the English. Agnew, the English Resident at Calicut, purposely defeated French attempts to found factories at Chawghat and Palghat. The French rights at Calicut, derived from the Zamorin’s indulgence were considered as invalid by the English in the light of new conquest and cession.
When Hasrley was at Calicut, the French wanted to unfurl their flag there, but it was not allowed. Agnew was approached with several representations for the enforcement of their privileges. The English thought that it was wrong and unlawful to allow the French the right to hoist their flag in the territory ceded to the Company. Therefore, according to the English, any attempt of the French to establish themselves on the Malabar Coast had to be prevented.
In 1791 Kurangot Nayar, who had sought political asylum in Travancore during Tipu’s invasion, returned and the French asked the English to evacuate his fort at Kurichie, occupied and garrisoned by them. But the English rejected this demand outright for they were determined to exercise the sovereign power over Kurangot. Moreover, the Nayar had been restored to his country by the Company. The French interference, on behalf of Kurangot Nayar, was unwarranted, for when the war with Tipu Sultan broke out; the French were not in possession of Kurangot.
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The word ‘dependencies’ in Martin’s receipt of 1785 given at the time of restitution of possessions appeared to have been introduced only to keep up a vague claim for nowhere was the term distinctly defined. And it could connote only the fortifications of Mahe as pointed out by their ruins. Those, with forts Dauphin and Conde and the Rock battery were what could conceivably be the fort and districts of Mahe when the war broke out. The French then possessed not even Fort St. George or Chembra. After 1792 they gradually occupied them without any restoration on the part of the English.
In 1793 again the Anglo-French war broke out in Europe, and the situation was cleverly availed of by the English. The news was a bene placito to them who were already disgusted with the various protests and obstacles raised by the French in Malabar Coast. In the changed political set-up French continuance in Mahe was viewed as “dangerous and inconvenient”.
On 16th July 1793 Mahe was once again surrendered to the English. This was the third surrender of that place within a period of four decades. The English took over full charge of the administration, and revenue was collected on account of the Company.
Mahe became a depot of the Company’s trade; the French were still welcome at the port, but only as traders observing the regulations of the English company. Thus, within less than three quarters of a century the French, who played many a game in the political chess-board of Malabar Coast, sometimes dominant and at other times effete, were thoroughly reduced to the status of a political and commercial non-entity by the superior power and enterprising efforts of the English.
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However, by the Paris Peace Treaty of 1814, Mahe once again came under the possession of the French. As the political supremacy of the English in Malabar had become a reality by 1792, the French possession of Mahe never posed a threat to the English. The French factory in Mahe had been reduced to a trading concern bereft of any political prestige or power.