Question

The first country to establish trade relations with India was ___

Answer 1

Hint: All imports and exports to and from India are included in India's foreign trade. It is handled by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry at the federal level. In 2018, foreign trade contributed 48.8% of India's GDP. In 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral set sail for India, establishing Portuguese commercial posts in Calicut and Cochin (modern-day Kochi), and returned to Portugal in 1501 with spices like pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, mace, and cloves.

Complete answer:
The first Europeans to trade with India were the Portuguese. Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Europeans found it impossible to trade with India via land routes. Vasco da Gama made the first successful expedition to India in 1498, when he arrived in Calicut, now in Kerala, after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. He gained authorization to trade in the city from Samoothiri Rajah after he arrived. Traditional hospitality was extended to the navigator, but an interview with the Samoothiri (Zamorin) yielded no conclusive conclusions.

Vasco da Gama asked permission to leave a factor in charge of the merchandise he couldn't sell, but the king refused, insisting that Gama pay customs duty like any other trader, causing friction between them.
Thus, Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut (modern-day Kozhikode, Kerala) in 1498 as the first European to sail to India. The huge profit made on this journey piqued the Portuguese interest in doing more business with India, and also drew other European navigators and traders.

So, the first country to establish trade relations with India was the Portuguese, Europe.

Note: Before 1813, India's export list contained manufactured commodities as well as primary articles, while the import list included metals and luxury goods. During much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, however, this pattern of trade was displaced by the import of manufactured commodities and the export of agricultural raw materials and food grains.