Meike Fellinger – Project meeting 14 March 2012
Research work progress to date
In the last 3 weeks I have been to different archives with the aim to gather enough material for my chapters on
private commissions/privilege trade and the re-export of goods to Britain via continental European channels of
trade.
The National Archives, Kew
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I have worked on the Chancery Masters’ Exhibits with the outcome of having recovered major sources
about Capt. Thomas Hall (EIC and Ostend Company), Charles Pike (EIC, Ostend and Swedish East India
Company), John Seale (EIC), Richard Moreton (EIC) and others.
I found a very useful and rare source, a printed EIC sales catalogue specific for private trade textiles
(1732)
Bodleian Library, Oxford
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I have studied the account book and notes of Captain Patrick Lawson (1778) containing a great number
of private commissions that his wife organised
I have transcribed some useful information from the business papers of Josias Wordsworth (1720-61)
I have read the published and annotated will of Colin Campbell (director of the Swedish East India
Company) as well as his recently published travelogue as chief supercargo of the SEIC’s first voyage to
Canton in 1732
On my trip to Oxford I found interesting material on private commissions, on patterns and quality as
discussed between supercargoes and consumers, and on the material culture of merchants (the will of Colin
Campbell is especially striking in this respect)
Plans for the future research work
I will have another 10 days to work in the British Library in London. I also need to go on a short trip to York in
order to see the Hickleton Papers that feature letters and ledgers from Frances Wood and other supercargoes who worked with him in the permanent Council in Canton (1758-c. 1770).
British Library:
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I need to transcribe the entries on private trade for key years/individuals for whom I have located and
partly transcribed private papers. These are:
Supercargoes: Frederick Pigou, Nathaniel and Hilaire Torriano, Frances Wood, John Forbes, John Searle,
James Naish, Richard Gough, John Brady Blake et al.
Captains: Patrick Lawson, John Pearse, Peter Pigou, Thomas Hall, Benjamin Godfrey et al.
I will mostly work with the G-series (Diaries and Consultations of the Council in Canton) as well as with
the commercial ledgers (L-series)
Literature:
I need to read a few more works on early modern economic history for better understanding the trade within
Europe:
Chapman, Stanley. The Rise of Merchant Banking (London, 1984),
Tijl Vanneste, Global Trade and Commercial Network: Eighteenth Century Diamond Merchants (Pickering and
Chatto, 2011),
Charles Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance (London, 1941).
Nuala Zahedieh, The Capital and the Colonies: London and the Atlantic Economy, 1660-1700 (Cambridge, 2010)
David Hancock, Oceans of Wine: Madeira and the Emergence of American Trade and Taste (New Haven, 2009).
Writing: On 25 April I will go to Florence and write my introduction there. The discussion of the secondary
literature and the core issues of my project will help me clarify my arguments before I get started on the first
chapter on private commissions. For the latter, I should have enough primary sources together by now.
Plans for conferences
Conferences/Seminar:
27 April 2012: I am the co-organiser of the second postgraduate workshop on ‘Visual and Material Culture’ an
event jointly held by Monash/Warwick students
5-8 May 2012: If this is wished I am more than happy to present my project on our trip to Leiden.
30/31 May 2012: I will present my project at the Warwick postgraduate conference
29/30 September 2012: I would like to attend the ‘New Directions in Global History’ at St. Anthony’s College,
Oxford.
Autumn term 2012: I am invited to present my work at the ‘Maritime History Seminar’ in Cambridge.