The EIC's Forgotten Cargo: Slaves and the Oceanic Trade

The EIC's Forgotten Cargo: Slaves and the Oceanic Trade

In this episode, Lucas and Luna delve into a dark and often overlooked aspect of the East India Company's operations: its involvement in the transoceanic slave trade. From the 17th century onward, Company ships transported enslaved Africans and Indians to plantation economies in the Mascarene Islands, the Cape, and even within Asia. We examine the scale of this trade, the role of key figures like Sir John Child, and the Company's resistance to abolition. Drawing on primary sources and recent scholarship, we uncover how the same corporation that traded in tea and opium also trafficked in human beings, shaping the Indian Ocean world in ways that are still felt today. #EastIndiaCompany #SlaveTrade #IndianOcean #Madagascar #Mauritius #SirJohnChild #Anjouan #Abolition #CompanyBahadur #Bombay #Calcutta #18thCentury #19thCentury #ColonialHistory #LabourHistory #HumanTrafficking #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The EIC's Forgotten Tea: From Canton to the Boston Tea Party

We trace the East India Company's tea trade from its origins in Canton to its explosive consequences in Boston Harbor. Lucas explains how the Company's monopoly on Chinese tea was the financial backbone of its empire, shipping millions of pounds annually in the fastest ships of the age. We explore the Tea Act of 1773, which was meant to bail out the overstocked Company but instead triggered the American Revolution. Luna asks about the taste of 18th-century tea versus modern tea, and how the Company's greed alienated both American colonists and London merchants. The episode also covers the smuggling networks that undercut the Company, the role of Bohea, Congou, and Singlo teas, and how tea drinking transformed British society from elite luxury to everyday necessity. A story of commerce, rebellion, and unintended consequences. #EastIndiaCompany #TeaAct #BostonTeaParty #Canton #ChineseTea #Bohea #Congou #AmericanRevolution #TeaSmuggling #CompanyBahadur #JohnCompany #TeaTrade #18thCentury #ColonialAmerica #BritishEmpire #OpiumWar #FexingoHistory #History Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The EIC's Forgotten Mapmaker: Jean-Baptiste d'Anville and the Atlas of Asia

Lucas and Luna explore the cartographic rivalry between the British East India Company and the French geographer Jean-Baptiste d'Anville, who created one of the most accurate maps of Asia in the 18th century without ever leaving his Paris study. They discuss how d'Anville compiled data from Jesuit missionaries, Mughal surveys, and Company records to produce his 1750 'Atlas of China', challenging British monopolies on geographic knowledge. The episode touches on the hidden influence of French mapmakers on British imperial strategy, the role of indigenous informants like the 'pundits', and the surprising story of a Tibetan lama whose sketches shaped Western views of the Himalayas. #JeanBaptisteDAnville #Cartography #FrenchEastIndiaCompany #JesuitMissions #AtlasOfChina #MughalSurveys #TibetanLama #Himalayas #Paris #18thCentury #ImperialRivalry #GeographicKnowledge #Pundits #JamesRennell #History #FexingoHistory #Podcast #EastIndiaCompany Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The EIC's Forgotten Rebel: Yakut Khan and the Siege of Bombay 1689

In 1689, a year before the Mughal War that nearly broke the East India Company's hold on western India, an Adil Shahi admiral named Yakut Khan—also known as the Siddi of Janjira—led a devastating attack on Bombay. This episode explores the 1689 Siege of Bombay from the perspective of Yakut Khan, a naval commander who had served the Mughals and the Adil Shahi sultanate, and whose fleet of small, fast vessels outmanoeuvred the Company's East Indiamen in Bombay Harbour. We discuss the strategic importance of the Siddi state of Janjira, the role of the Koli fishermen who aided the Company, and how the siege forced the British to sue for peace with Aurangzeb. We also look at the aftermath: the Treaty of Bombay (1690), which temporarily reduced the Company to a tributary of the Mughal Empire, and the long-term consequences for Bombay's fortifications and naval policy. This episode draws on contemporary accounts from the English factory at Surat, Maratha chronicles, and Persian histories of the Deccan to paint a balanced picture of this forgotten clash between a rising corporate power and a resilient regional naval force. #History #FexingoHistory #EastIndiaCompany #YakutKhan #SiddiOfJanjira #SiegeOfBombay1689 #BombayHarbour #MughalEmpire #Aurangzeb #Janjira #KoliFishermen #CompanyBahadur #TreatyOfBombay1690 #NavalWarfare #IndianOcean #Maratha #Deccan #ColonialIndia Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The EIC's Forgotten Opium: How the Company Addicted China

In this episode, we uncover the East India Company's transformation from a trader in spices and cloth to the world's largest drug cartel. Lucas and Luna trace the opium trade's origins in Bengal's poppy fields, the Company's monopoly on production at Patna, and the clever use of 'country trade' ships to smuggle chests into Canton. We meet figures like Charles Cornwallis, who tightened control over cultivation, and the 'factory' at Patna that turned raw opium into chests stamped with the Company's coat of arms. The conversation covers the trade's mechanics: how the Company forced Indian peasants to grow poppies, auctioned the opium in Calcutta, and funneled silver from Chinese smugglers back to London to buy tea. We also explore the moral debates within the Company — the protests of officials like Sir John Malcolm — and the devastating addiction that swept across China, setting the stage for the Opium Wars. This is the story of how a trading corporation built an empire on a drug, with consequences that still echo in modern geopolitics. #EastIndiaCompany #OpiumTrade #CompanyBahadur #PatnaFactory #CantonSystem #CharlesCornwallis #Bengal #Poppy #CountryTrade #TeaAndOpium #Addiction #OpiumWars #Imperialism #18thCentury #19thCentury #TradeHistory #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]