Correct Option: A

The French were last to come to pre-independence India as traders. France was the last of the major European maritime powers of the 17th century to enter the East India trade in a significant way. Six decades after the foundation of the English and Dutch East India companies (in 1600 and 1602 respectively), and at a time when both companies were multiplying factories on the shores of India, the French still didn't have a viable trading company and a single permanent establishment in the East.