Military entrepreneurs farmed revenue, engaged in local agricultural trade, and tried to build up holdings of zamindari land in the countryside. From the early eighteenth century the Company had emerged preeminent on India's external routes. In the case of Bengal, Indian mercantile capitalists allied with revenue entrepreneurs and disenchanted soldiers to encourage the expansionist ambition of Company servants. The operation of the new British courts which came into being after 1772, and the greater access to landed income afforded by the early colonial regime, offered them a secure base. The accommodation between British power and indigenous capital a relationship in which Indians were rapidly becoming subordinate was forcefully illustrated in the coastal cities. Indian merchants also took part in the rituals of the European city burgesses, filling several offices in the Madras Corporation which had been founded in 1688. In Surat, the English Company increased its control over its European and Indian rivals after 1730.