Surat is brimming with history - since time long gone, it’s been famed for its cottons, muslins, silks and brocades and as a trading centre for textiles and spices. Its strategic position on the west coast of India, its relative proximity to Europe and its prosperity made it a pawn in the game of one up man ship between the various colonial powers in India. The Portuguese, French, Dutch and the English controlled the city and so the lucrative sea trade at one time or another. Despite its turbulent past, Surat grew in eminence to become one of the major ports and amongst the most prosperous cities of western India in the 17th and 18th centuries. Modern Surat has a flourishing textile industry and is the centre of diamond processing, cutting and polishing for the global diamond and gemstone industry.