Monsoon Traders

The East India Company grew from an Elizabethan trading venture to control half of global trade, leading directly to the British Raj in India and establishing British commercial and imperial interests in China and South East Asia. This book tells the story of the Company over three centuries, covering its origins, the maritime experience, encounters with indigenous peoples, goods traded, wealth created, technology, shipbuilding, conflict and conquest, piracy, rebellion and empire. Monsoon Traders is illustrated throughout with images from the National Maritime Museum in London, which has an important but hitherto under-researched collection of objects relating to the Company, including fine art, objets d’art, maps, charts, navigational instruments, ship models and weapons. Together with expert texts by three leading historians in the field, these combine to tell the story of the East India Company’s encounter with the Indian Ocean and the effects this had on both Asian and British societies, people and politics. Monsoon Traders is published to coincide with the opening of a new permanent Asian gallery at the National Maritime Museum.