Congreve, The Way of the World
John Dryden, Fables
Queen's Royal Cookery
East India Company sales catalogue
The Spectator
Jonathan Swift, A Proposal...
Sugar in Britain
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Bartholomew Fair
Trade and the English language
Swift, A Modest Proposal
East India Company: Bengal textiles
English arrives in the West Indies
Hogarth, Harlot's Progress
Cities in chaos
Polite conversation
James Miller, Of Politeness
Samuel Richardson, Pamela
Advert for a giant
Muffin seller
The Art of Cookery
Henry Fielding, Tom Jones
Johnson's Dictionary
Sterne, Tristram Shandy
Lowth’s grammar
Rousseau, The Social Contract
Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
Captain Cook's journal
Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Burns, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
Anglo-Indian newspaper
Notices about runaway slaves
First British advert for curry powder
Storming of the Bastille
Olaudah Equiano
William Blake's Notebook
Thomas Paine's Rights of Man
Walker’s correct pronunciation
Wollstonecraft's Rights of Woman
Songs of Innocence and Experience
Trade played a significant role in bringing new words to the English language. Cargo lists such as these were produced by English trading companies to publicise goods recently arrived from India. The shipments listed on the left include several types of fabric with Asian names. Chints (chintz), gingham and seersucker (from Hindi, Malay and Persian respectively) are all words that entered international English in this way.
Dutch, French and English companies established rival trading posts in India during the 17th century, each hoping to share in the economic success already enjoyed by the Portuguese. Almost all British trade with India came under the control of the East India Company or the rival United Company of Merchants of England. Their ships carried spices, fabrics and new words borrowed from the languages of South Asia.
East India Company, Cargo Lists for 14 & 17 July 1724.
Shelfmark: ORB.30/587.