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东印度公司档案（East
India Company Factory Records）
Sources
from the British Library, London
Part
1: China and Japan
Between 1600 and
1833 the East India Company sent more than 4600 ships to
East Asia. At first an unwelcome troop of foreigners, the EIC merchants
were persistent and gradually established numerous trading posts (or
"factories").
By 1800 the EIC had become Britain's biggest commercial enterprise.
The EIC records
in this collection reflect the scale of the company's activity and the
merchants' successes and failures in China and Japan. They are an essential
source for studying the interaction between Western traders and Asian
society. As well as documenting business activities, these files provide
an insight into the character of English and foreign merchants, their
operations and relationships.
Japan, 1600-1702
Trade with Japan
started with the visit of 'The Clove' to the port of Hirado in 1613.
The aim was to sell English woollen cloth to Japan. After this mission
successfully established a factory in Hirado, merchants were sent to
neighbouring islands and ports including Nagasaki, Edo, Osaka, Shrongo,
Miaco and Tushma. Failure to establish good trading relationships with
the Shogun, coupled with problems with the Dutch traders, finally led
to the factory's closure in 1623.
Despite the short
life of the EIC's trade in Japan, the records here offer a detailed
insight into the EIC's activity and contemporary life in Japan up to
1702. All the records for Japan are covered in Part 1. Highlights include:
- Richard Wickham's
copy books of letters written in Japan and Bantam in Java (the site
of the first English factory in 1602) between 1614 and 1617.
- A description
by William Adams of his arrival in Japan in 1600.
China, 1596-1840
Up to 1680 East
India Company trade was controlled through the factory at Bantam in
Java. Direct trade with China followed after 1672 when EIC merchants
gained permission to trade at Amoy, Canton and Chusan. The three main
commodities were tea - which was so highly demanded that by the late
eighteenth century it represented 60% of EIC trade - silk textiles,
and porcelain.
The records for
China are split between Parts 1 and 2 of this project. There are many
diaries, records of meetings and consultations of the Council in China,
letters, drawings, catalogues, as well as lists of ships and cargoes,
and material on the Opium trade.
These files
are a core source for anybody interested in maritime trade, the origins
of global commerce and the establishment of trading networks in Asia.
"Tea revolutionized
the Company's trade in the eighteenth century in the same way that cottons
had in the seventeenth. As a result, by 1770 it was the single most
important item in the Company's portfolio and the value of the China
trade had come to rival that of all its Indian settlements combined."
John Keay writing in The Honourable Company: A History of the English
East India Company (Harper Collins, 1991)
"Each factory consisted of a compound containing living quarters,
public rooms, warehouses and open yards, the whole surrounded by a fence
or wall as security against fire or thieves... the English factory at
Hirado in Japan had a wharf fronting the harbour and, as well as the
usual buildings, there was a garden with a pond for koi carp and a dovecote,
an orchard, a vegetable patch, and a Japanese o-furo or hot bath, which
friends and neighbours were often invited to share."
Anthony Farrington writing in Trading Places: The East India Company
and Asia, 1600-1834 (The British Library, 2002)
Part 2: China
Here we continue
from Part 1 making available the rest of the material on the
China trade, 1596-1840. In particular, Part 2 focuses on the following:
- Diaries and
Consultations of the EIC Councils in China for 1815-1834.
- Canton Agency,
Commercial and Financial Consultations, 1832-1840.
- Despatches to
China, 1829-1832.
- Letters received
from China, 1823-1832.
- Secret consultations
of the China Select Committees, 1793-1832.
- Consultations
of the Superintending Committee, 1792-1794.
This body of evidence
allows researchers to assess the development of the
China trade. The fascinating archive includes:
- Lists of commodities
for the China trade - imports and exports.
- Instructions
from the Company to the merchants.
- Descriptions
of business meetings with the Chinese.
- Instructions
to ships and narratives of ships' voyages.
- Details on competition
for market share with Dutch, French, Danish, and American traders,
interlopers and other rival companies.
- Court Proceedings.
- Maps.
- Information
on Chinese debts.
- Notes on meetings
with local contacts.
- Lists of ships
at Canton.
- Catalogues of
presents given by the Company to the Emperor.
- Watercolour
drawings of harbours in China.
- Lists of foreign
residents in China.
- Information
on the role of supercargoes, the expansion of factories and the impact
of the Opium Trade.
"Tea revolutionized
the Company's trade in the eighteenth century in the same way that cottons
had in the seventeenth. As a result, by 1770 it was the single most
important item in the Company's portfolio and the value of the China
trade had come to rival that of all its Indian settlements combined."
John Keay writing in The Honourable Company: A History of the English
East India Company (Harper Collins, 1991).
Part
3: Fort St George (Madras)
In the 1620s the
East India Company extended its activities on the Coromandel coast,
then based at Masulipatam, further to the south. In 1626 a settlement
was established at Armagon, but this site had practical difficulties.
When the ruler of the district around Madraspatam invited the Company
to establish a factory there, the Company was eager to accept and the
factors of Armagon moved to the new base of operations in 1640. The
factory was named Fort St George and raipdly grew in importance as a
centre for EIC trading activity in the east. In 1682 it officially replaced
Bantam as the headquarters of the eastern trade.
Part 3 covers important
early material on East India Company activities in India with a complete
sequence of the following Fort St George records:
- Consultations,
1655-1704.
- Letters despatched,
1661-1704.
Further material
on Fort St George will be made available in Part 4.
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Through Western Eyes）
东印度公司档案（East
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