Delaney nootka trading co license#

Etches headed a syndicate consisting of merchants and gentlemen, and one woman - Mary Camilla Brook, tea dealer of London.įrom James Bryce, A Cyclopædia of Geography (London, 1862) BL flickr One of these was the result of a proposal sent to the East India Company in 1785 by Richard Cadman Etches, a London merchant. Experimental voyages were sent out from England, India, and Macao.

Delaney nootka trading co license#

To avoid losing out, the Company had to enter the fur trade itself or license British traders to operate at Canton in China.

As China lay within the area of the East India Company’s trading monopoly, it was likely that British merchants would try to circumvent this restriction by entering foreign employment. The Sound is one of many inlets along the Pacific coast of the island.įrom Handbook to Vancouver Island and British Columbia (London, 1862)Ĭaptain James Cook’s third voyage (1776-1780) had shown that there was potential for a maritime fur trade between North West America and China. Nootka is situated on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia, Canada.

Taboo is fictional, but Nootka is a real place and the East India Company had indeed been interested in it in the late 18th century. Viewers of the BBC TV series Taboo have heard about Nootka Sound and the machinations of the East India Company to acquire land there owned by James Keziah Delaney.