Traders: The East India Company and Asia

A new gallery opens at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich this month, exploring the history and continuing relevance of Britain’s trade with Asia.

Seen through the eye of the East India Company, a company that once had a monopoly on all English trade to Asia, the exhibition showcases some of the museum’s collection, including swords, sailors’ journals, and navigational instruments.

The gallery also contains portraits of key figures from throughout the East India Company’s history: Sir James Lancaster, commander of the first Company voyage; Jamsetjee Bomanjee Wadia, master shipbuilder at Bombay Dockyard; the ship-wrecked and imprisoned Robert Knox, said to be the inspiration for Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe; the appropriately named Money brothers, who made their fortunes in Asia; and Commodore Sir William James, a poor Welsh miller’s son who ran away to sea, and rose to become commodore of the Bombay Marine and Chairman of the Company.

Traders: The East India Company and Asia opens at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, on 28 September 2011 and admission is free. To find out more about the gallery, visit the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich website.
 

John McAleer, one of the curators of Imperial and Maritime History at the museum and co-author of Monsoon Traders: The Maritime World of the East India Company, talks more about the topic on our September podcast

Take a look at some of our other galleries, including the launch of Titanic and pioneers of polar exploration at www.historyextra.com/feature/galleries