Madras, Bombay and Calcutta were the anglicised names of where the British first set up trading posts.

The correct option is Cities.

Madras (now Chennai), Bombay (now Mumbai), and Calcutta (now Kolkata) were originally small settlements or clusters of villages where the English East India Company established its early trading outposts and factories during the 17th century.
Over time, due to rapid commercial growth, administrative expansion, and migration, these trading posts grew into presidency towns and eventually became major metropolitan cities under British rule, serving as key economic and political hubs of colonial India.