The English East India Company and the British Crown: c. 1795-1803, the first occupation at the Cape of Good Hope

Jordan, Calvin

Title: The English East India Company and the British Crown: c. 1795-1803, the first occupation at the Cape of Good Hope
Creator: Jordan, Calvin
Subject: East India Company
Subject: East India Company -- Influence
Subject: Cape of Good Hope (Colony)
Subject: Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- History -- 1795-1872
Subject: Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- Politics and government -- 1795-1872
Subject: British -- South Africa -- History -- 19th century
Subject: Great Britain -- Colonies -- Commerce
Subject: Great Britain -- Colonies -- Administration -- History -- 19th century
Subject: Merchant marine -- Great Britain -- History
Date Issued: 2018
Date: 2018
Type: text
Type: Thesis
Type: Masters
Type: MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63164
Identifier: vital:28369
Description: My thesis aims to investigate the relationship between the English East India Company (EEIC) and the British colonial administration at the Cape of Good Hope during the first British occupation (1795 to 1803). Studies and literature that concern the EEIC have rarely gone beyond the surface, detailing the presence of the EEIC at the Cape, and neglecting the Company’s involvement in the administration thereof. My thesis draws on prior works but attempts to address both temporal and spatial gaps in this literature on the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, and the history of the EEIC. This study takes note of the seaborne related activity around the ports, bays and islands at the Cape – including the regulation of these spaces and issues related to securing British trade and colonial possessions more generally. I question the framing of the Cape primarily as a constituent of a national unit by locating the colony within a broader global and maritime context. A key interest is to determine the degree to which the EEIC influenced and participated in the British governance of the Cape, particularly by exploring the maritime dimensions of the relationship between the EEIC and colonial governance during this particular period. This involves understanding the embeddedness of the Cape in British (Crown and Company) networks and the constitution of a ‘British maritime zone’. This study uses archival sources drawn from the British colonial government records, Company records, and the private diaries and letters of Lady Anne Barnard that relate to the Cape. It is shown that a uniquely configured governance convention was constituted to secure the mutual commercial and imperial interests of both Crown and Company. By keeping the Cape secure, the British sought to keep their greater seaborne Empire secure. This study reveals that the EEIC was significantly involved in and influenced the way the British administration governed the Cape.
Format: 124 pages
Format: pdf
Publisher: Rhodes University
Publisher: Faculty of Humanities, History
Language: English
Rights: Jordan, Calvin

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