Tuticorin

Tuticorin was a large town: by 1700 it numbered around 50,000 inhabitants. In 1658 Rijcklof van Goens captured the town for the VOC in a bloodless take-over. Once the VOC had secured a monopoly on the pearl trade, it kept a strict watch to ensure that all the pearls were sold in Tuticorin. Like the other Dutch bases on India's southern coast, Tuticorin fell under Ceylonese jurisdiction.