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Dutch India () consisted of the settlements and trading posts of the Dutch East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. It is only used as a geographical definition, as there was never a political authority ruling all Dutch India. Instead, Dutch India was divided into the governorates Dutch Ceylon and Dutch Coromandel, the commandment Dutch Malabar, and the directorates Dutch Bengal and Dutch Suratte.
The Dutch Indies, on the other hand, were the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) and the Dutch Caribbean (present-day Suriname and the former Netherlands Antilles).
Apart from textiles, the items traded in Dutch India include precious stones, indigo, and silk across the Indian Peninsula, saltpetre and opium in Dutch Bengal, and Black pepper in Dutch Malabar. Indian slaves were exported to the Maluku Islands and the Cape Colony.
In the second half of the eighteenth century, the Dutch lost their influence more and more following the Travancore–Dutch War. The Kew Letters relinquished all Dutch colonies to the British, to prevent them from being overrun by the French. Although Dutch Coromandel and Dutch Bengal were restored to Dutch rule by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, they returned to British rule owing to the provisions of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824. Under the terms of the treaty, all transfers of property and establishments were to take place on 1 March 1825. By the middle of 1825, therefore, the Dutch had lost their last trading posts in India.
The Dutch also imported coins struck in the Netherlands, including:
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