Queens' and the East India Company
Read More![This is the ‘plate book’ of Queens’ College, used to record items held in the college Treasury. Mostly used to record transactions relating to College silverware and lands, it also reveals investments by senior members of Queens’ in the East India Company between 1767 and 1775. In 1767, Robert Plumptre, (President 1760-1788), David Hughes, and other senior Fellows agreed to use money from college accounts to buy East India Company bonds, with the interest to be collected for ‘college use’. The plate book records further investments and careful monitoring of these bonds over the next eight years.
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<b>Title:</b> Plate book<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> Queens’ College Archives [QC 49]](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Enslavement-Salvation/Queens-and-the-East-India-Company/i-jsQWSqb/0/69963df7/M/QC-049-004-M.jpg)
This is the ‘plate book’ of Queens’ College, used to record items held in the college Treasury. Mostly used to record transactions relating to College silverware and lands, it also reveals investments by senior members of Queens’ in the East India Company between 1767 and 1775. In 1767, Robert Plumptre, (President 1760-1788), David Hughes, and other senior Fellows agreed to use money from college accounts to buy East India Company bonds, with the interest to be collected for ‘college use’. The plate book records further investments and careful monitoring of these bonds over the next eight years.
Title: Plate book
Shelfmark: Queens’ College Archives [QC 49]
![This is the ‘plate book’ of Queens’ College, used to record items held in the college Treasury. Mostly used to record transactions relating to College silverware and lands, it also reveals investments by senior members of Queens’ in the East India Company between 1767 and 1775. In 1767, Robert Plumptre, (President 1760-1788), David Hughes, and other senior Fellows agreed to use money from college accounts to buy East India Company bonds, with the interest to be collected for ‘college use’. The plate book records further investments and careful monitoring of these bonds over the next eight years.
<br><br>
<b>Title:</b> Plate book<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> Queens’ College Archives [QC 49]](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Enslavement-Salvation/Queens-and-the-East-India-Company/i-jsQWSqb/0/69963df7/Ti/QC-049-004-Ti.jpg)
![Queens’ held East India Company stock during the ‘Bengal Bubble’ of 1769, an exceptionally volatile period in the company’s history, which resulted in widespread famine in India in 1770-71 that affected over 30 million people. Reports of extreme corruption, predatory governance, grain hoarding, and casual violence by representatives of the East India Company during this period horrified many in Britain. However, Queens’ continued to buy bonds and receive profit from these investments until 1775, when the College sold its last bond. Between 1769 and 1784, the value of East India Company stock fell by 55%, and it is currently unknown how much profit Queens’ received from its speculations.
<br><br>
<b>Title:</b> Plate book<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> Queens’ College Archives [QC 49]](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Enslavement-Salvation/Queens-and-the-East-India-Company/i-qJxRN8X/0/6d9a1018/Ti/QC-049-001-Ti.jpg)