When the English arrived in India, their chief concern, !'I like -the other European nations, was to get trade concessions and the royal permission from the Mughul Emperor to establish their factories at the coastal towns and in the important commercial cities of the Empire. To achieve these objects, the Company first sent William Hawkins(who visited India from 1609 to 1611), to pursue the Mughul Emperor to allow the Company to have free trade facilities and factories in India. Hawkins failed to get these concessions as a result of the Portuguese opposition( who were very influential at the Mughul court and who had tile support of the strong nobles of the Empire.