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French East India Company Trade: Quantitative Evidence


What we have sought to establish for the other East India Companies, a disaggregated and detailed record of the specific goods ordered, traded, and sold, has already been published in the case of the French and is hence not included as a database on this website. Donald C. Wellington, French East India Companies: A historical account and record of trade (Lanham, 2006) includes a 77-page appendix, which amongst other tables also lists the precise contents of auction sales, detailing the quantities of each individual good, covering the lifetimes of the first two companies.


For those who wish to consult further statistical evidence: Wellington also includes tables on the overall tonnage and value of Company importations and exportations, some indication of the value of sales and of imports and exports during the post-monopoly period (1775-80), as well as summaries of the major imports and of the textile imports of the two earlier monopoly companies. The standard and most detailed work on the Law Company, Philippe Haudrère’s La Compagnie française des Indes au XVIIIe siècle (Second revised and corrected edition. 2 vols. Paris, 2005) contains extensive appendices spanning nearly 100 pages, with statistical data, including trade data. Whilst helpful to understand overall movements and trends, this is not, however disaggregated for individual goods traded or even types of merchandise.