1704 - East India Company's sale catalogue - pepper

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The East India Company's sale catalogue for March 1704. The document records the amount of pepper bought by the Company in China. By the early 18th century the Company was trading regularly with the Chinese, buying mainly tea, silk textiles and inexpensive porcelain.

About East India Office Trading Documents

The East India Company and its trading activities provide a fascinating backdrop for many accounts of shipwrecks and smuggling. This selection of documents from the British Library's India Office gives a flavour of the great range of ephemeral texts involved in the many aspects of international trade. In particular we can see how goods from India and China became an integral part of British culture, and sense the stranglehold on commerce that the monopolistic East India Company strove to maintain.