What resources did the English seek in their Asian territories? Sugar and cocoa Gold and ivory Oil and rubber Spices and tea
Answer: Principal resources: Tea, Spices, Cotton and Silk.
After several not so successful attempts to make commercial gains into the Asian continent as the principal spice merchants, the Portuguese and the Spanish were doing, the English led by Sir Francis Drake´s Company found a way into the Pacific Ocean through the Magellan Straits. The presence of the other European countries like the Dutch, the tax imposition at the Ottoman ports, and the weather made these moves unimpressive.
It was not until after the Napoleon´s conquest, when the Dutch were subdued and the East Indian Company formed by the British to open up trading routes and contracts into the Southeast Asian continent and India, that the British began to experience profitable growths and expansions primarily into China and India. Their main interests were focused on tea, spices, cotton and silk. From China came the tea while spices, silk and cotton came from South India.
By the 17th century, the cotton produced by Indian weavers and brought into Britain was used to service worldwide demand for the textile for furnishing and clothing industry.