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William Eden and the Treaty of Mauritius, 1786–7

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

G. C. Bolton  and
B. E. Kennedy
G. C. Bolton
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Western Australia
B. E. Kennedy
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
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Extract

During the generation before the French Revolution, die Atlantic colonial powers - Britain, France, Spain - endeavoured in various ways to assert metropolitan control of trade and expansion in the colonies. The revolt of Britain's American colonies was the most spectacular failure of such policies, but it did not deter eidier London or Versailles after the peace of 1783 from continuing to seek a more active supervision of their colonial outposts. Among symptoms of this activity were the energetic policies of die French ministry of marine under Castries, and the creation of the Board of Control for India and the renovated Board of Trade under Pitt

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , December 1973 , pp. 681 - 696
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

1 Nussbaum, F. L., ‘The formation of the New East India Company of Calonne’, American Historical Review, XXXVIII, 3 (1933), 475–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Furber, H., John Company at Work: a Study of European Expansion in India in the late Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1951), pp. 32–8.Google Scholar

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7 Dorset to Carmarthen, 5 May 1785 and 9 June 1785 (Knole MSS, Kent County Record Office, Maidstone).

8 Same to same, 22 July 1784 (Knole MSS).

9 Harris to Pitt, 22 Dec. 1786 (B.M. Add. MSS 28068, fo. 194).

10 Calonne had family ties with powerful financial interests. By his first marriage to Joséphine-Anne Marquet he was related to the Paris-Duverney dynasty, and by his second to the family of Micault d'Harvelay.

11 Hailes to Carmarthen, 21 July 1785 (B.M. Egerron MSS 3499).

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19 A maund is between 82 and 83 pounds in weight.

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21 Most of the eighteenth century documents refer to the Hooghly as the Ganges.

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28 Eden to Carmarthen, 2 Sept. 1787 (no. 6g) (B.M. Add. MSS 34467, to. 76).

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34 Carmarthen, to Eden, , 18 Aug. 1786 (B.M. Add. MSS 34422, fo. 79).Google Scholar

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37 Dundas, to Eden, , 28 Sept. 1786 (B.M. Add. MSS 34422, fo. 353).Google Scholar

38 Carmarthen, to Eden, , 28 Sept. 1786 (B.M. Add. MSS 34422, fo. 357).Google Scholar

39 Eden, to Carmarthen, , 10 Oct. 1786Google Scholar (secret and confidential) and 20 Oct. 1786 (B.M. Add. MSS 34422, fos. 449 and 488). The island of St Eustatius in the Dutch West Indies had been exploited by the French as a free port during the American War of Independence. During the peace talks the French had unsuccessfully put forward a claim for full compensation for all goods and shipping seized by the British. This claim was still used as a bargaining point for some years after the peace.

40 These are now among the Auckland MSS in the British Museum: Add. MSS 34468 and 34469.

41 Eden, to Pitt, , 28 Dec. 1786 (B.M. Add. MSS 34423, fo. 105).Google Scholar

42 Same t0 same, 1 Feb. 1787 (B.M. Add. MSS 34424, fo. 1).

43 Eden, to Dundas, , 1 Feb. 1787Google Scholar; and Eden, to Pitt, , 13 Feb. 1787 (B.M. Add. MSS 34424, fos. 9 and 57).Google Scholar

44 Carmarthen, to Eden, , 24 Feb. 1787Google Scholar; Eden, to Carmarthen, , 7 Mar. 1787 (B.M. Add. MSS 34467, fos. 20–41 and 42).Google Scholar

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48 Dundas, to Eden, , 26 June 1787 (B.M. Add. MSS 34467, fo. 47).Google Scholar

49 Eden, to Dundas, (?), 9 Aug. 1787 (B.M. Add. MSS 34425, fo. 334).Google Scholar

50 Eden, to Carmarthen, , 2 Sept. 1787 (no. 71) (B.M. Add. MSS 34467, fo. 90).Google Scholar

51 Eden, to Pitt, , 2 Sept. 1787 (G.D. 30/8/104, P.R.O., London).Google Scholar

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53 Eden, to Carmarthen, , 2 Sept. 1787 (no. 69) (B.M. Add. MSS 34467, fo. 78).Google Scholar