Maxine Berg University of Warwick British Trade with Asia: Historiography and Material Culture

a new foregrounding of the role of India and China in emerging European industrialization. China and India were the ‘first industrial regions’

Europe's Asian Centuries Trading Eurasia Global History and Culture Centre Department of History - University of Warwick Asian Export Ware and Industrial Revolution Asian Goods in the Political Economy of Europe Asian Goods and European Consumer Cultures Asian Goods: Making and Distributing Asian Goods and the Transmission of Knowledge Bringing global perspectives and interdisciplinary methods to bear on histories of industrialization, consumer society and material culture Investigating the long distance trade between Asia and Europe in material goods and culture that transformed the early modern world. Research People Themes Professor Maxine Berg Project Director Dr Hanna Hodacs Research Fellow Dr Chris Nierstrasz Research Fellow Dr Felicia Gottman Research Fellow Dr Helen Clifford Museum Consultant Ms Meike Fellinger PhD Student Ms Anna Guszcza Project Administrator

Products and qualities Historiography Sources case study: Commercial accounts in the India Office Library Dr. Felicia Gottmann & Dr. Chris Nierstrasz

Historiographies Industrialization Consumer Culture Trade and Colonization

Economic history – inward looking But history of science and technology – wide European framework of Britain’s indusrialization – Joel Mokyr Global history: Pomeranz – China and Europe But English exceptionalism – Robert Allen

Consumer and industrious revolutions Jan de Vries Histories of colonialism and empire

Historiography of the English East India Company A few facts: Founded 1600; amalgamation – charter legalising entry of private traders 1833 – Company ceased to be a trading company 1858 – Company liquidated.

Surveys: Sanjay Subrahmanyam Philip Stern Older literature: Comparative East India Companies

Business history and Company history: Chaudhuri; Huw Bowen Indian Ocean World

Connected histories vs. National histories and area studies Subrahmanyam

Private and Privilege Trade Networks of merchants Local knowledge and brokered world

Size of Privilege trade Private and family papers of merchants

Material culture: Size of Asia trade to Europe: 50,000 tons a year or one pound of Asian goods per person in the late 18thC.

Variety of textiles: 50 different varieties Market development: Printed calicoes vs. Shirts and sheeting

Coromandel Coast, V&A Collections

Chinaware: Official imports: current ware Private Trade: specialty goods

New sources: Orphanages Poor Law Records

Material Culture Initiatives at Warwick hcc/research/globalporcelain/

Material Encounters of the East India Companies