Helen Clifford giving a lecture on 'Palampores, Porcelain and Paper' to the Dalton and Gayles Local History Group on 16th May 2014, connecting her work for the Trading Eurasia project with a local audience.

Many East India Company connections emerged, including one member of the audience related to Thomas Coutts the banker, whose Chinese wallpaper survives, now in Coutts Bank London.

University of Warwick, 7-9 May 2014

Maxine Berg delivered a keynote address at the Luxury Network’s third workshop on the topic of ‘The Geography of Luxury: East, West and Global Directions’. The event, organised by Giorgio Riello and Rosa Salzberg from the Global History and Culture Centre and and Qing Wang from the Warwick Business School, spanned three days and hosted speakers from all over the world with backgrounds in History, Business Economics, Art and Architecture, the creative sector, journalism, and the business world. It included several sessions dedicated to the comparative study of early modern sumptuary legislation, a postgraduate workshop, as well as sessions on ‘The Materiality of Luxury Across Cultures’, ‘Luxury and Cosmopolitan Consumers’, ‘The Business of Luxury in a Global Perspective’, ‘Luxury Brands and Global Competition’, and ‘The Britishness of British Luxury’. Maxine Berg’s keynote, ‘The Merest Shadows of a Commodity’: Asian Luxury Goods in Early Modern Europe’ gave a long view of Dhaka’s global textile manufacture, from the production of the world’s finest muslins in the early modern period, to the changes with British rule and European industrialisation, and Bangladesh’s new manufacturing ascendency, which saw the dramatic Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013.

Society for French Historical Studies Annual Conference 2014: 24-26 April

Felicia Gottmann presented her research at this year’s Society for French Historical Studies Annual Conference. In a session entitled ‘Les relations de la France avec l'Orient aux 17e et 18e siècles’ she gave a paper on the topic of ‘Illicit Consumption, Smuggling, and the French State: Toiles Peintes and Asian Textiles 1680-1760’. Chaired by Nicholas Dew of McGill University, the panel also included Massimiliano Vaghi from the University of Milan (‘Paris 1763, «la paix la plus honteuse qu’eut signée la France depuis le traité de Bretigny». Les élites françaises face à la perte de l’Inde (1763-1783)) and Irini Apostolou from the University of Athens (‘Les Antiquaires français et le voyage en Méditerranée orientale XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles’).

Economic History Society Annual Conference 2014: 28-30 March

The project team made a strong appearance at the Economic History Society Annual Conference which was held at Warwick University in March.

Chris Nierstrasz organised a panel on the topic of ‘Companies and the State’, chaired by Maxine Berg, which included papers by Chris himself (A strange thirst for tea: East India Companies, private trade, smuggling and the popularisation of the consumption of tea in Western Europe, 1700-60), by Santhi Hejeebu from Cornell College (Managerial sway within the English East India Company), and by Leos Müller from Stockholm University (The business strategy of an interloper: The Swedish East India Company 1731-83).

Meeting with Dr Miyase Koyuncu Kaya

Dr Maxine Berg had a meeting with Dr Miyase Koyuncu on 12 December 2013 at the University of Warwick. Dr Miyase Koyuncu Kaya is a visiting Academic in the Global History and Culture Centre, researching “British tradesmen in Smyrna as a global city in Ottoman lands in late 18th century." She has aimed to take a snapshot of life, experiences, perceptions of British merchants in an Ottoman port city, Smyrna/Izmir in late 18th century. Her purpose is to investigate micro history of a group of British expatriates in a Ottoman port city and to understand their relations with Ottoman governors, local men, their perception of Turkish life style, Ottoman culture and statecraft.

Workshop with Dr Paul Van dyke from Sun Yat-sen University

10 September 2013, Balliol College, Oxford

Held at the Warwick in Venice Palazzo Papafava. Click here for the conference webpage.

The conference brought together scholars from across the globe who are addressing Europe's trade in and consumption of fine manufactured goods from China and India over this period. Its key aim was to connect and compare research on all of Europe's East India Companies as well as the private and privilege trade which brought these goods to Europe. Together we discussed how these goods were ordered, how they were designed and made, and how they were sold and distributed in Europe.

A proposal for an edited volume is now in progress resulting from this very successful conference.

The keynote speaker was Professor Jan de Vries (Berkeley).

Knowledge Exchange across projects looking at similar subject areas.

Click here for Symposium programme.

A workshop with invited speakers held at Warwick University.

Please click here for the workshop website.