State Library Victoria is pleased to announce the acquisition of the East India Company Database, a unique collection of digitized India Office Records from the British Library in London.
This collection of documents covers royal charters, correspondence, trading diaries, council meeting minutes, and a range of other unique and interesting documents relating to British trade and rule in the Indian subcontinent and beyond between 1600 and 1947.
Whilst the original collection at the British Archives comprised of over 14km of shelving, they have digitized a portion of it (over 1.2 million pages). To help put these resources into context, as well as provide some overview and introduction, there are a range of essays provided as part of the database available here.
Here are some highlights from the site/collection:
- Original letters of marque (permission given by the King or Queen to be a privateer or legal pirate).
- A letter to the British Government from Philip Francis, justifying a duel between and Warren Hastings and himself.
- An interactive map showing a visualization of the East India Company’s trade between 1760 and 1834. You can adjust based on commodity, dates and markets.
- A listed chronology that allows you to limit what you see in the collection based on time or major events.
Take the time to browse and peruse this lavish resource – you never know what you’ll find. If you are looking for more material relating to the East India Company, please also check out the State Library Victoria catalogue for our extensive collection of books and other resources.
To access the database from home, you need to be a Victorian resident and a Library member. You can join here, if haven’t already.
This article was written by Christopher Durham, with contributions from Steven Kafkarisos.
