British Private Trade Networks in the Arabian Seas, c. 1680

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A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick

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British Private Trade Networks in the Arabian Seas,
c. 1680 – c. 1760

Timothy Davies

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in History

Department of History
University of Warwick
October 2012
Table of Contents

List of Tables and Charts …………………………………………………................ iv

Acknowledgements ……………………………….………………………...………. v

Declaration …………………………………………………………………………. vi

Abstract ……………………….……………………………………………………. vi

List of Abbreviations ……………………………………………………………… vii

Dates, Language and Currency ..…………………………………….…….…...…. viii

Map of the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries ………….. viii

Introduction - British Private Trade Networks in the Arabian Seas, c.1680-c.
1760 ............................................................................................................................... 1

British Private Trade in the Indian Ocean – A Historiographical Overview ............ 2
Thesis Outline ......................................................................................................... 12
Early Modern Mercantile Trade and the Atlantic World ........................................ 15
Networks and Network Theory ............................................................................... 18
Indian Ocean Networks ........................................................................................... 21
Early Modern Mercantile Trade and Institutions .................................................... 25
Britain’s Indian Ocean World and Imperial History ............................................... 30
Chronology .............................................................................................................. 34
Source Material ....................................................................................................... 36
Thesis Structure and Chapter Plan .......................................................................... 39

Chapter One - The East India Company and British Private Trade at Bombay
and Surat .................................................................................................................... 43

I – The Decline of Surat .......................................................................................... 51
II – The Rise of Bombay ......................................................................................... 57
IIa - Bombay’s Company Servants ...................................................................... 67
III – The Development of Private Trade and Bombay’s ‘Subdued Prosperity’ ...... 77
i
Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 96

Chapter Two - Private Trade Portfolios and the Cultivation of Fortunes ........ 102

I – Diversification and Profit in Private Trade ...................................................... 107
II – The Country Trade from Western India ......................................................... 111
IIa – Trade to Bengal and the Coromandel Coast ............................................ 114
IIb – The China Trade ....................................................................................... 119
IIc – The Country Trade and Private British Shipping ..................................... 133
IId – The Country Trade and the Importance of Indian Financing .................. 136
III – Private Trade and Company Servants as Agents .......................................... 141
IIIa – Money Lending ........................................................................................ 147
IIIb – The Management of Estates .................................................................... 153
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 156

Chapter Three - ‘Carrying on a Losing Commerce’? British Private Trade in
the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea .......................................................................... 161

I – Bandar ‘Abbas, Persia and British Trade Networks ........................................ 167
II – Private Trade in the Persian Gulf Region ....................................................... 179
III – Mocha, the Red Sea and British Trade.......................................................... 188
IV – Private Trade in the Red Sea Region ............................................................ 203
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 218

Chapter Four - Private Trade in the Western Indian Ocean and Metropolitan
Connections .............................................................................................................. 221

I – The Centrality of Correspondence ................................................................... 226
II – Kinship, Patronage and Private Trade ............................................................ 233
III – Private Trade Between Europe and Asia ...................................................... 242
IV – The Remittance of Private Fortunes ............................................................. 255
V – Reputations ..................................................................................................... 262
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 270

iii
Chapter Five - Principals, Agents and Private Trade: The East India Company
and Employee Malfeasance .................................................................................... 274

I – The Principal-Agent Problem and Malfeasance in Chartered Companies ...... 282
II – Malfeasance and Company Servants on the West Coast of India .................. 289
III – ‘Overtrading’ and Private Trade in Company Commodities ........................ 296
IV – Reputations ................................................................................................... 305
V – Factory ‘Fiefdoms’, Fraud and Embezzlement .............................................. 313
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 327

Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 334
Appendix One .......................................................................................................... 346
Appendix Two ......................................................................................................... 358
Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 361

List of Tables and Charts

Table One Covenanted Servants at Bombay, 1712-1752 70

Table Two New Servants at Bombay, 1715-1752 71

Chart One Customs Collected at Bombay, 1712-1750 92

Table Three Francis Chamberlain and Robert Nightingale’s Completed 124
Ventures with Charles Boone, 1716-1721

Table Four Bombay Investors in the Balls Frigate to China, 1729 127

Table Five Robert Cowan’s Ventures (by Destination), 1729-1734 130

Chart Two Robert Cowan’s Perquisite Profits Relative to Other 132
Activities, 1729-1734

Chart Three Consulage Collected at Bandar ‘Abbas, 1730-1754 183

Chart Four Robert Cowan’s Recorded Gains on Ventures (by 216
Destination), 1729-1734

Chart Five Robert Cowan’s Average Gains on Ventures (by Destination), 217
1729-1734
iv
Acknowledgements

So many people have contributed to this project in one way or another over the last
few years, and I am immensely grateful to them all. First and foremost of course, my
thanks must go to my supervisor, Maxine Berg. Her ‘Treasure Fleets of the Eastern
Oceans’ special subject course sparked my initial interest in the East India Companies
and all things global. She has since been unfailingly supportive, reassuring, and has
shown tremendous faith in me and my research. I cannot stress enough how much
hard work she has put in reading multiple chapter drafts, offering innumerable helpful
suggestions and keeping me sane whilst completing this project! It would not have
seen the light of day without her, and I am extremely thankful for all her
encouragement throughout my time at Warwick.

My family, and especially my mum Rebecca have, as always, been wonderfully
supportive throughout the ‘thesis years’ and all my academic endeavours; I can’t
thank them enough.

All my fellow PhD students and colleagues at Warwick provided constant inspiration,
assistance and light relief during some of the most stressful days. David Doddington
deserves to be singled out for special mention however: he had the dubious pleasure
of living with me for the last few years, and I have to thank him hugely for his
fantastic support, friendship, advice, and numerous comments on my work. Several
other Warwick people past and present including Meike Fellinger, Margot Finn; and
David Arnold and Giorgio Riello as part of my Upgrade panel, have read various bits
of the thesis at various times, and I am grateful for their helpful suggestions. Special
thanks are also due to Anne Gerritsen for her close reading, extremely useful
comments, and the invaluable and comforting advice she’s offered every time I have
wandered into her office for a chat! The project benefitted greatly from preliminary
discussions with three legends of East India Company scholarship: Peter Marshall,
Om Prakash, and Huw Bowen. I am also grateful for the perceptive comments and
suggestions received from participants at conferences in Mumbai, Cambridge, the
EHS, the IHR, Ghent and Warwick, where I have presented my research. I must also
mention the staff of the India Office Records in the British Library and several other
record offices that have helped patiently and efficiently along the way, and had to put
up with many of my strange requests!

In institutional terms, I wish to thank the Economic and Social Research Council for
generously funding the thesis, and the MA that preceded it.

Finally, I could not have completed this project without the support (and patience) of
Louise: she has been my rock throughout, and offered many a helpful pep-talk when
the going was tough. Although she’s probably sick of it by now, this thesis is
dedicated to her, with all my love.
v
Declaration

This thesis is entirely my own work and has not been submitted for a degree at
another university. None of the material in this thesis has been published prior to the
date of submission. Elements of Chapters Two and Three are also discussed in my
MA dissertation, ‘Private Merchants and Global Trade: Commercial Networking in
the Eighteenth-Century Indian Ocean’ (University of Warwick, 2009).

Abstract

This thesis explores the networks of British private trade based in the Arabian Seas,
between c.1680 and c.1760, with a focus on the period between 1700 and 1740. It
draws from the extensive records of the East India Company and numerous
collections of private papers to look at how this mercantile trade was shaped,
organised and constrained by the particular circumstances of the western Indian
Ocean region. The unusual constellation of economic and political factors within the
world of the Arabian Seas affected British private trade in significant ways during the
pre-colonial period: political turmoil, piracy and commercial competition placed
constraints on the successful operation of commerce. Shifting regional dynamics also
underpinned the growth and greater success of private trade in the second half of the
period under review. The thesis is therefore concerned with how British merchants
conducted trade as part of a global commercial empire, whilst remaining embedded in
specific local economic and political settings. Challenging and moving beyond
existing work that has concentrated on the Bay of Bengal and Coromandel Coast
regions, this study emphasises the regional specificity and unevenness of the British
private trade system across maritime Asia. It makes use of, and builds upon, a
number of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches from recent work
on maritime trade and early modern merchant networks in both the Atlantic and
Indian Ocean worlds.

vi
List of Abbreviations

BL British Library, London

BLA Bedfordshire and Luton Archives, Bedford

ESRO East Sussex Record Office, Lewes

HALS Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, Hertford

IOR India Office Records collection, BL

JESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient

LMA London Metropolitan Archives

MSA Maharashtra State Archives, Mumbai

NAS National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh

SA Shropshire Archives, Shrewsbury

SALS Somerset Archives and Local Studies, Taunton

SHL Senate House Library, University of London

TNA The National Archives, Kew

WYAS West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford

vii
Dates, Language and Currency

Dates listed in the text and footnotes have been rendered with the year beginning 1
January, rather than the 25 March, as was common in Britain until c.1750. Dates in
contemporary letters and account books that appear, for example, as 14 February
1726/27 have been written as 14 February 1727. In addition, for ease of reading, most
of the common contractions found in contemporary correspondence quoted
throughout have been expanded (i.e. Honourable for Ho or Honble, and Company for
Compa). Indian terms, where used, and the names of vessels, are italicised. The
Company and its servants usually divided rupee values into rupees, quarters and reas
(where 100 reas = 1 quarter) for accounts. However, most values below have been
rounded to the nearest whole rupee. Where converted into Sterling, 1 rupee = 2s/6d.

Map of the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Centuries

From K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean World: An
Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge, 1985), p. 96
viii
Introduction
British Private Trade Networks in the Arabian Seas, c.1680 – c.1760

This thesis explores the networks of British private trade in the Arabian Seas during
the first half of the eighteenth century. Despite long-standing interest in the subject of
East Indian private trade, few studies have focused on how it operated in the
westward ‘segment’ of the Indian Ocean trading world that encompassed the west
coast of India, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.1 As well as attending to a branch of
European commerce in a hitherto neglected area, this thesis stresses the regional
complexity of private trade and foregrounds a new perspective on this element of
British East Indian commerce. Although operating alongside and within the
Honourable East India Company’s structures, the private trade system in the Arabian
Seas was fundamentally mediated through social networks and inter-personal ties.
These were often global in scope, but were also bound and shaped by factors unique
to this particular Indian Ocean region.
This introduction firstly provides an overview of the argument, aims and
approach of the thesis. It discusses the existing literature on private trade and
establishes the rationale for a fresh approach to the subject. It also considers recent
work in related areas that has influenced the direction and focus of the thesis, drawing
attention to a number of themes that feature throughout the five principal chapters.

1 The Arabian Seas have been conceptualised both as an element of a wider Indian Ocean trading
world, and also as a distinct economic and cultural zone that can be studied in its own right. See Om
Prakash, ‘The Trading World of the Indian Ocean: Some Defining Features’, in Om Prakash (ed.), The
Trading World of the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800 (New Delhi, 2012), p. 24 and R.J. Barendse’s volume,
The Arabian Seas, 1640-1700 (Leiden, 1998).
1