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1603Sir Walter Raleigh's notes
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1604First English dictionary
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1605Letter about Guy Fawkes
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1605Gunpowder Plot conspirators
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1605The head of Guy Fawkes
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1608Shakespeare's King Lear
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1610The Globe Theatre
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1611King James Bible
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1617Surgeons' tools
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1623Chinese globe
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1623Shakespeare's First Folio
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1636Lotus Sutra
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1640Witch hunting
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1643English Civil War scenes
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1649Execution of Charles I
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1649Agreement of the People
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1649Charles I's executioner
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1650Early A - Z of London
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1650Advert for a quack doctor
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1660Oliver Cromwell as the Devil
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1665A cure for the Plague
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1665Robert Hooke, Micrographia
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1666Great Fire of London map
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1666Great Fire of London
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1666Wren's plans after the fire
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1669Theatrical figures
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1674Dictionary of criminal slang
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1674Games and pastimes
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1679Habeas Corpus Act
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1679Map of the moon
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1684A London Rhinoceros
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1685Henry Purcell
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1690Locke's Two Treatises
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1693East India Company
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1693Account of a shipwreck
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1698Map of South America
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Intro
Imagine an England without tea in china cups, without pepper, chintz or chutney. The fact that these Asian products play such a central role in our culture is, to a large extent, thanks to the impact of the East India Company.
Asia used to be known as 'The East Indies'. In the 1600s, pepper, spices, medicinal drugs, aromatic woods, perfumes and silks were rare commodities in Europe, and therefore extremely valuable. Trading these goods could make you very wealthy. Like the Dutch, the English wanted a key role in the spice trade. In 1600, ‘The Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies’ was given ‘royal approval’ by a charter from Queen Elizabeth I. 218 subscribers raised £68,373 – a huge amount of money at a time when a skilled carpenter was earning about 7 pence a day. The Company was granted a monopoly on all English trade east of the Cape of Good Hope.
Displayed here is an open letter, known as a 'letter patent' by William III and Mary II, prescribing regulations for the conduct of business of the East India Company. This document of 1693 would therefore have been of immense importance to the Company, as it confirms its privileges, as well as regulating its activities. The richness of the decoration may well be an indication of the significance attached to it.
The East India Company (as the company became known) would monopolise trade from India for over 200 years, and it came to rule large swathes of India, exercising huge military power.
Shelfmark: IOR A/1/48
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