Rivalry for Trade in Tea and Textiles The English and Dutch East India companies (1700-1800)

by Nierstrasz, Chris

• ISBN13: 9781137486523
• ISBN10: 113748652X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-09-22
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

In Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient, Holden Furber attributed the success and failure of East India Companies to the way they organised their trade in Asia. This new study expands this focus to cover the East India Companies' global empires in a comparison of the rivalry between the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the East India Company (EIC) in their trade in tea and Indian textiles. The reasons for the success and failure of both companies in this fierce competition need to be found in Europe, Asia and the wider Atlantic. Although the impact of this trade is already visible in events such as the opening of Western trade with China, the Boston Tea Party, the establishment of British Empire in Bengal and the Industrial Revolution, this book also puts the rivalry in the perspective of difference in the varieties of tea and textiles both companies brought back to Europe.

Author Biography

Chris Nierstrasz, Lecturer at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, is the author of In the Shadow of the Company: The Dutch East India Company and its Servants in the Period of its Decline (1740-1796) (2012). He has also contributed to the editing of Goods from the East, 1600-1800 (2015) for the Europe's Asian Centuries project.

Table of Contents

PART I: IMPERFECT MONOPOLIES

1. Imperfect monopoly in trade
1.1 Mix of commodities
1.2 Monopoly and private trade
2. Imperfect monopoly in Europe
2.1 Silver and taxation
2.2 Re-export of Asian commodities
3. Imperfect monopoly in Asia
3.1 Beyond Silver
3.2 Intra-Asian trade and Empire
3.3 Empire and the home-state
Conclusion

PART II: RIVALRY FOR TEA: EMPIRES AND PRIVATE TRADE

1. Tea and monopoly
1.1 Competition for monopoly (1685-1730)
1.2 A Competitive Market (1730-1790)
2. Empires and Tea
2.1 Direct trade and empire
2.2 EIC intra-Asian trade and English country trade
2.3 British Empire and Canton
3. Private trade and tea
3.1 The 'Discovery' of Tea
3.2 Private Trade and Batavia
3.3 Private trade in tea as a tool of competition
3.4 English Private Trade in Tea
Conclusion

PART III: POPULARISATION OF TEA: SMUGGLERS AND DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF TEA

1. Smuggling and Britain
1.1 The problem of contraband tea
1.2 An answer to smuggling
2. Smuggling and America
2.1 Unnoticed smuggling
2.2 British Empires connect
3. Selections of tea
3.1 Different varieties, different prices
3.2 A different selection of tea
Conclusion

PART IV RIVALRY FOR TEXTILES: A GLOBAL MARKET

1. Europe and India
1.1 Imports of Indian Textiles
1.2 Textiles and Mercantilism
2. Textiles and Empire in Asia
2.1 Intra-Asian trade and textiles
2.2 Balancing Asia and Europe
2.3 English dominance
Conclusion

PART V: THE CONSUMPTION OF TEXTILES: RETURN CARGOES AND VARIETY

1. Different regions, different textiles
2. Competition for textiles
2.1 Muslins
2.2 White Calicoes
2.3 Coloured Calicoes
3. Imports of Indian textiles and the Industrial Revolution
Conclusion