A Guide to the Commerce of Bengal, for the use of merchants, ship owners, commanders, officers, pursers and others, resorting to the East Indies, but particularly of those connected with the shipping

£25,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd · No longer available

Rare and important: this guide for merchants in British India provides not only a granular account of the rules and regulations concerning shipping in India, but also an extraordinary overview of global opportunities for trade with India. A directory of East India Company activity, it’s also a desirable and handsome early Calcutta imprint . John Phipps (1777-1840) worked in the Harbour Master’s Office in Calcutta where he accumulated considerable practical experience and was familiar with the details relating to trade regulations. His job also gave him access to the latest important economic data and trade statistics. The Charter Act of 1813 had already curtailed the privileges of the East India Company which led to this publication for the captains of merchant ships to conduct trade in Eastern seas. Dedicated to the “commercial community of British India”, it was originally envisaged as a continuation of the commercial information in William Milburn’s Oriental Commerce (London, 1813). The first part lists Port Rules and Regulations, which includes a sailing guide and template forms to be submitted upon arrival. Of great value for further research, it contains detailed lists of members of the marine establishment, captains and pilots, tables of ships built at Calcutta, Bombay, Demaun (Deman), Coringa, Prince of Wales’s Island (Penang), Surat, Cochin, Rangoon and Chittagong and remarks on their whereabouts. A comprehensive list of imports and exports by the East India company

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.