William Bolts

William Bolts (1740-1808) was a private merchant of Dutch origin known for his book, The Considerations on Indian Affairs (1772), which detailed the exploitation and despoiling of Bengal by the East India Company (EIC) and its officials which began shortly after the Battle of Plassey in 1757.

Biography

Bolts came to Calcutta in search of fortune in 1759. In the same year he joined the service of the East Indian Company. As a senior merchant, Bolts became a council member at Benares in 1764. He quarreled with the company's authorities on the issue of private trade and remittance. He was dismissed from the Company's service and deported as an interloper in 1768.

Bolts was also a founding member of the Austrian East India Company.[1] He had been invited to form a company by Maria Theresa of Austria. He conducted a number of voyages, sailing from Livorno in Italy to various destinations under an Austrian flag: Mozambique, Macau, Pegu, India and the Nicobar islands. Bolts visited Mauritius in 1781. He was influential in initiating the fur trade on the North West Coast of America in the 1780s.[2]

Author

As an employee of the East India Company, Bolts had seen how Bengal, once a prosperous region, was despoiled and bled white by the East India Company. His observations and experiences were recorded in his book, Considerations on Indian Affairs, 1772. Bolts' work is a unique source for scholars inquiring into the nature of early British rule in Bengal.

[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

References

  1. ^ Franz von Pollack-Parnau, "Eine österreich-ostindische Handelskompanie, 1775-1785: Beitrag zur österreichische Wirtschaftsgeschichte unter Maria Theresia und Joseph II", Vierteljahrsschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgesichte, Beiheft 12, Stuttgart, 1927.
  2. ^ Robert J. King, "Heinrich Zimmermann and the Proposed Voyage of the Royal and Imperial Ship Cobenzell to the North West Coast in 1782-1783", The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord, vol.21, no.3, July 2011, pp.235-262.
  3. ^ Sahafat Bar-e Sagheer main by Dr. Abdul Salaam Khursheed, Nai Sahafat by Dr. Maskeen Ali Hijazi
  4. ^ Considerations on India Affairs by William Bolts
  5. ^ John Everaert, "Willem Bolts: India Regained and Lost: Indiamen, Imperial Factories and Country Trade (1775-1785)", in K.S. Mathew (ed.), Mariners, Merchants, and Oceans: Studies in Maritime History, New Delhi, Manohar, 1995, pp.363-369.
  6. ^ Barry M. Gough and Robert J. King, “William Bolts: An Eighteenth Century Merchant Adventurer”, Archives: the Journal of the British Records Association, vol.xxxi, no.112, April 2005, pp.8-28.
  7. ^ Michal Wanner, “Imperial Asiatic Company in Trieste—The Last Attempt of the Habsburg Monarchy to Penetrate East Indian Trade, 1781-1785”, 5th International Congress of Maritime History, Royal Naval College, Greenwich, 23-27 June 2008.
  8. ^ Robert J. King, "William Bolts and the Austrian Origins of the Lapérouse Expedition", Terrae Incognitae, vol.40, 2008, pp.1-28.