With whose permission did the English set up their first factory in Surat ?

The first permanent English factory at Surat was established with the permission of Mughal Emperor Jahangir. After Captain Thomas Best’s naval victory over the Portuguese off Surat in 1612, Jahangir was impressed and granted the English permission in early 1613 to set up a factory (under Thomas Aldworth), marking the beginning of the Company’s permanent trading presence at Surat. Contemporary accounts also note that this victory allowed the English to secure a foothold at Surat (1613) and that Sir Thomas Roe later reinforced English trading rights at the Mughal court in 1615, obtaining further farmans for factories elsewhere in the empire [2].

Sources

1. [1] Rajiv Ahir. A Brief History of Modern India (2019 ed.). SPECTRUM. > Chapter 3: Advent of the Europeans in India > Foothold in West and South > p. 38
2. [2] Rajiv Ahir. A Brief History of Modern India (2019 ed.). SPECTRUM. > Chapter 3: Advent of the Europeans in India > Why the English Succeeded against Other European Powers > p. 57