<P> Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601 and returned in 1603 . In March 1604 Sir Henry Middleton commanded the second voyage . General William Keeling, a captain during the second voyage, led the third voyage aboard the Red Dragon from 1607 to 1610 along with the Hector under Captain William Hawkins and the Consent under Captain David Middleton . </P> <P> Early in 1608 Alexander Sharpeigh was appointed captain of the company's Ascension, and general or commander of the fourth voyage . Thereafter two ships, Ascension and Union (captained by Richard Rowles) sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1607--08 . </P> <P> Initially, the company struggled in the spice trade because of the competition from the already well - established Dutch East India Company . The company opened a factory in Bantam on the first voyage, and imports of pepper from Java were an important part of the company's trade for twenty years . The factory in Bantam was closed in 1683 . During this time ships belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat, which was established as a trade transit point in 1608 . </P> <P> In the next two years, the company established its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal . The high profits reported by the company after landing in India initially prompted King James I to grant subsidiary licences to other trading companies in England . But in 1609 he renewed the charter given to the company for an indefinite period, including a clause that specified that the charter would cease to be in force if the trade turned unprofitable for three consecutive years . </P>

East india company started trade with india from which city in 1608