Visualisation: East India Company Trade Data (1660-1834)
Abstract
The following Tableau Visualization highlights the flow of different commodities across Asia by the British East India Company (EIC). The visualisation also showcases the changes in trading patterns as EIC becomes a colonial force in South Asia.
By interacting with the visualisation, one can understand the changes in trading patterns of the East India Company over the 200-year period.
What questions are answered with this visualisation?
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What were the places that the British EIC traded?
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Which commodities did EIC trade with each of these places?
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What were the amounts of these commodities? And how did they change over time?
Reflections
As I worked on this, I was building on the works of K. N. Chaudhari and H. V. Bowen, who have spent many years of their life working on this.
Despite this work, the limitations of the data are shocking. For the period of 1660 to 1760, we don't know where did the exports from London go to. This comes up in the visualisation, as and when you would try to filter the data based on location.
The British East India Company was a mammoth organisation. A trading company that shaped the history of a whole subcontinent for over two centuries. The effects of its activities, even after almost 190 years after its dissolution have repercussions for millions today.
The sheer amount of commodities traded, in different currencies, and hundereds of types of each commodity is mind-boggling. For instance, if you see 'Textiles' option above. It shows, for each year, more than hundred types and qualities of textiles that were traded.
Data Sources
I am compiling the data from two major works of historians.
For the period between 1660 to 1760: I am relying more on the data collected by K. N. Chaudhari in his work The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company 1660-1760 published in 1976.
For the period between 1760 to 1834: I am relying on the data collected by H. V. Bowen in his book titled The Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756–1833 published in 2005.
In my knowledge, this is the first and only time someone has compiled the full dataset of the trading activities of the EIC.
This allows us to see the changes on a much longer time frame. And also helps us ask questions about the flows of commodities at different times.
Limitations
Both the datasets are compiled by historians for different concerns. And they reflect the changes in the structure of the trade by the EIC.
Hence, the data from Chaudhari (for the period 1660-1760) does not have the details about the destination of the exports from London. It does not list the origin points of the imports as well. Hence, it limits the merging possibilities of both the datasets.
On the other hand, Bowen (for the period 1760 onwards) provides the origin and destination points. Which is the reason when filtered for a lot of the ports, we do not know how much trade was carried out with that particular port before 1760.
More details about the problems arising from the merging are discussed in the Github Repo which can help replicate this project.
For historians who want to take a peek under the hood or use it in your own work,
you can access it from this Github Repo link.
Underlying Data available at Github
This project would not have been possible without the help of Lester Carver, Dr. Antonio LoPiano, Ashlyn Stewart, David Thomas, Stephen Sturgeon, Melanie Hubbard, Dr. Eric Weiskott.
Special thanks for the support from Dr. Prasannan Parthasarathi, Dr. Pritvhi Datta Chandra Shobhi, Dr. Karthik Rao Cavale, Dr. John Mathew.
And it would not have been possible without some of the best friends I could have asked for: Dhairya Shah, Sarthak Jaiswal, Khalil Sawan, Debanuj Nayak, Adrish Dey.