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English Traders on the Guinea Coast, 1657–1668: An Analysis of the East India Company Archive

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Margaret Makepeace
Margaret Makepeace*
Affiliation:
India Office Library and Records
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Extract

English trade with Guinea in west Africa was regulated during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries by royal letters patent. In 1631 Charles I issued a patent which entitled the Guinea Company, headed by Sir Nicholas Crispe, to the monopoly of trade from Cape Blanco to the Cape of Good Hope for a period of thirty-one years. The Guinea Company continued to operate during the Interregnum in spite of increased competition both from freelance merchants, known as interlopers, and from rival European powers. The Council of State in 1651 decided to allow the monopoly to run for a further fourteen years, but restricted the Company to an area lying between two points set twenty leagues to the north of Cormantine, its headquarters in Guinea, and twenty leagues south of the fort at Sierra Leone, leaving the remainder of the coast open to all English traders.

The East India Company was eager to gain a part in the Guinea trade because ships calling there on the way to India could exchange a cargo of European manufactured goods for a consignment of gold and ivory which was used to sustain operations at the factories in India. In this way the Company had less need to export large quantities of bullion from England to India, a practice which was both heavily criticized and formally restricted before 1660. In 1649 the East India Company reached an agreement with the Assada adventurers that the Guinea and East India trades should be united, but decided that this scheme could not be effected immediately.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 16 , 1989 , pp. 237 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1989

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References

NOTES

1. The total shipments of gold were at least 42,694 1/8 oz plus a small unspecified amount on the Coronation in 1662. Taking 8 oz as equal to 1 mark worth £25, the gold exported from Guinea to India amounted to approximately £133,500.

2. Foster, William, The English Factories in India 1655–60 (Oxford 1921) 255, 308.Google Scholar

3. IOR: E/3/28 f.2 Madras to East India Company 10 October 1663.

4. See Appendix 1.

5. Foster, William, The English Factories in India 1661–64 (Oxford 1923) 192.Google Scholar

6. Foster, William, The English Factories in India 1665–67 (Oxford 1925) 31.Google Scholar

7. IOR: E/3/85 ff.168 East India Company to Edmond Child 14 September 1660.

8. IOR: E/3/26 ff.143v-47 Fort Cormantine to East India Company 1 March 1660.

9. IOR: E/3/26 ff.212v-14v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 14 January 1661.

10. IOR: E/3/27 ff.101-02v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 23 January 1662.

11. IOR: E/3/27 ff.40-41v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 10 June 1661.

12. See for example IOR: E/3/86 ff.73v-75 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 11 July 1662.

13. IOR: E/3/27 f.194-94v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 26 January 1663.

14. IOR: E/3/85 f.3 East India Company to John Banks at Hamburg 5 March 1658.

15. Between 1658 and 1664 the East India Company agents at Amsterdam were Jonas Abeeles, Richard Bridgman, Mrs Bridgman and the heirs of Richard Bridgman deceased, Joseph Bathurst, and Richard Manning.

16. See for example IOR: E/3/26 ff.143v-46v Roger Chappell to East India Company 1 March 1660 and ff.212-12v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 3 November 1660.

17. IOR: E/3/85 ff.161v,174 East India Company to Mrs Bridgman at Amsterdam 7 September & 23 November 1660.

18. IOR: E/3/85 ff.110-11 East India Company to Mrs Bridgman at Amsterdam April 1659.

19. IOR: E/3/86 ff.70v-72v East India Company to Bathurst and Manning at Amsterdam, to Vincent Delabar at Dover, and to Captain John Eymout of the George and Martha May-July 1662.

20. For a description of the most common varieties of Indian textiles imported by the East India Company in the seventeenth century see Chaudhuri, K. N., The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company (London, 1978) 500–05.Google Scholar

21. IOR: E/3/26 ff.48-50 James Conget to East India Company 20 June 1659.

22. IOR: E/3/26 ff.187-89v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 16 July 1660.

23. IOR: E/3/26 ff.212-12v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 3 November 1660.

24. IOR: E/3/86 ff.30-32 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 10 November 1661.

25. Ibid.

26. IOR: E/3/25 ff.243-44v Lawrence Staveley to East India Company 22 February 1658.

27. IOR: E/3/27 ff.101-02v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 23 January 1662.

28. IOR: E/3/25 ff.287-89v James Conget to East India Company 8 October 1658.

29. IOR: E/3/85 ff.5-6 East India Company to Lawrence Staveley 31 December 1657.

30. IOR: E/3/85 ff.113-14v East India Company to Fort Cormantine 23 June 1659.

31. IOR: E/3/85 ff.127-29 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 8 November 1659.

32. IOR: E/3/85 ff.162-65 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 12 September 1660.

33. IOR: E/3/86 ff.20-22 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 31 August 1661.

34. IOR: E/3/25 ff.287-89v James Conget to East India Company 8 October 1658.

35. IOR: E/3/85 ff.127-29 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 8 November 1659.

36. IOR: E/3/85 ff.133v-35 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 21 December 1659.

37. IOR: E/3/25 ff.289v-90v James Conget to East India Company 27 December 1658.

38. IOR: E/3/26 ff.48-50 James Conget to East India Company 20 June 1659.

39. IOR: E/3/25 ff.243-44v Lancelot Staveley to East India Company 22 February 1658.

40. IOR: E/3/25 ff.259-60v James Conget to East India Company 3 July 1658.

41. IOR: E/3/26 ff.212-12v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 3 November 1660.

42. IOR: E/3/27 ff.40-41v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 10 June 1661.

43. Ibid.

44. IOR: E/3/25 ff.263-64v James Conget to East India Company 10 July 1658.

45. IOR: E/3/27 ff.40-41v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 10 June 1661.

46. IOR: E/3/26 ff.48-51v James Conget to East India Company 20 June 1659 and Conget at Barbados to East India Company 4 February 1660.

47. IOR: E/3/85 ff.127-29 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 8 November 1659.

48. IOR: E/3/85 ff.162-65 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 12 September 1660.

49. IOR: E/3/26 ff.143v-46v Roger Chappell to East India Company 1 March 1660.

50. IOR: E/3/26 ff.212-14v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 3 November 1660 and Fort Cormantine to East India Company 14 January 1661.

51. IOR: E/3/26 ff.242v-43v Copy trade agreement 18 January 1661.

52. IOR: E/3/26 ff.239-41v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 26 March 1661, and ff.252-53 Roger Chappell to the general of the mine 23 March 1661.

53. IOR: E/3/27 ff.40-41v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 10 June 1661.

54. IOR: E/3/27 ff.101-02v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 23 January 1662.

55. IOR: E/3/27 ff.106-06v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 18 February 1662.

56. IOR: E/3/86 ff.84-86 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 11 October 1662.

57. IOR: 1/2/6 f.105v.

58. IOR: H/42, 66-67.

59. IOR: E/3/25 ff.287-89 James Conget to East India Company 8 October 1658.

60. IOR: E/3/26 ff.143v-46v Roger Chappell to East India Company 1 March 1660.

61. IOR: E/3/27 ff.40-43v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 10 June 1661.

62. IOR: E/3/25 ff.284-84v Copy report of Ralph Johnson on charges against Nicholas Herrick 26 September 1658

63. IOR: E/3/25 ff.298-99 Nicholas Herrick to East India Company 23 October 1658.

64. IOR: E/3/26 ff.143v-46v Roger Chappell to East India Company 1 March 1660.

65. IOR: E/3/85 ff.84-86 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 27 December 1658.

66. IOR: E/3/85 ff.5-6 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 31 December 1657.

67. IOR: E/3/26 ff.143v-46v Roger Chappell to East India Company 1 March 1660.

68. IOR: E/3/26 ff.182-83v Edmond Child to East India Company 19 April 1660.

69. IOR: E/3/26 ff.190-91v Edmond Child to East India Company 8 May 1660.

70. IOR: E/3/26 ff.212v-14v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 14 January 1661.

71. IOR: E/3/26 ff.143-43v Roger Chappell to East India Company 2 December 1659.

72. IOR: E/3/85 ff.162-65 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 12 September 1660.

73. IOR: E/3/86 ff.20-22 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 31 August 1661.

74. IOR: E/3/85 ff.133v-35 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 21 December 1659.

75. IOR: E/3/85 ff.174v-76 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 30 November 1660.

76. IOR: E/3/26 ff.212-15v Fort Cormantine to East India Company 14 January 1661.

77. IOR: B/32 f.H9v Court 9 May 1673.

78. IOR: E/3/86 ff.84-86 East India Company to Fort Cormantine 27 October 1662.

79. IOR: E/3/87 ff.13v-14 East India Company to Beavis and Maxwell 28 April 1666.

80. IOR: E/3/87 f.15 Royal Company to Beavis and other factors on the Gold Coast 3 May 1666.

81. There are several entries concerning the East India Company claim in the Court Minutes 1668-81 IOR: B/29-36.

82. IOR: E/3/27 ff.195-96 Fort Cormantine to East India Company 4 March 1663.

83. Davies, K. G., The Royal African Company (London, 1957), 42–43.Google Scholar

84. IOR: B/30 f.176 Court 27 November 1668.