The European factories in India serve during the wars of the eighteenth century not only as collection and transshipment points for trade but also increasingly as fortified centers of refuge for both foreigners and Indians.

British factories gradually begin to apply British law to disputes arising within their jurisdiction.

The posts also begin to grow in area and population.

Armed company servants are effective protectors of trade.

As rival contenders for power call for armed assistance and as individual European adventurers find permanent homes in India, British and French companies find themselves more and more involved in local politics in the south and in Bengal.

Plots and counterplots climax when British East India Company forces, led by Robert Clive, decisively defeat the larger but divided forces of Nawab Siraj-ud-Dawlah at Plassey (Pilasi) in Bengal in 1757.