By Lara Carrani
Edited by Tanya Mishra and Mark Potter
Women were extremely important in the expansion of the East India Trading Company (EIC), as despite the views and limitations women faced, they used their positions to change their circumstances. Women played multiple roles while interacting with the EIC in the period between 1600-1750. The role of marriage was significant in the creation and development of relationships between the EIC and the trade networks throughout southeast Asia. Interaction with political and economic platforms both challenged and aided the EIC in their goal to expand their company while missed opportunities by the EIC slowed down their expansion in southeast Asia. This essay will argue that the roles of women in the expansion of the EIC were vital in both challenging and aiding the Company’s aims, through a variety of means.
In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, there were multiple limitations for women, which were influenced by the popular view about women. The ideal woman was to ‘dedicate’ her life to the ‘comfort and wellbeing’ of her husband while supporting a ‘meek demeanour’ and an understanding of the gender roles which were dictatorial of the time.[1] From this view, women were extremely limited and the patriarchal nature of the time was dominating. Despite the legal and social limitations which were prevalent, it was possible, with resources, to exercise a public position that featured a prominent economic and political role.[2] While this was primarily true in western European culture, the position of women in southeast Asia were significantly different. While the gender roles were not equal, women were seen in far more prominent roles than in Europe. Working in the economic and diplomatic sector while also having the opportunity to become warriors, helped establish a less patriarchal system.[3] Women faced different views and limitations depending on their country of origin, however, they still played a prominent role throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Marriage was important in establishing connections between the EIC and countries in southeast Asia. Job Charnock, a prominent member of the EIC, married an Indian woman and adopted many of the local customs, such as wearing Indian clothes.[4] Although very little is known about Charnock’s wife, her influence was paramount to his success. It is assumed that their marriage took place in 1678 and directly after that year, Charnock was promoted to ‘Chief of Kasimbazar’ by the Madras Council. Charnock’s new position enabled him to play a key role in trade negotiations for the EIC, expanding their trade networks and gaining multiple new contacts.[5] The role of Charnock’s wife, whom he named Maria, was very influential for him and his subsequent success.[6] Marital conversion was very common, specifically among women, however, in a move away from societal values and assumptions, Charnock converted to Hinduism after his marriage.[7] Adopting the local religion and customs earned Charnock respect among the community he lived in and aided in the expansion of trade within the EIC. Without the marriage to Maria, and what followed it, the EIC would not have been able to increase their business as her influence increased Charnock’s respectability. Despite knowing little about Maria, her influence in Charnock and the EIC’s success is clear.
It was noted that in Madras in the 1640s, there were a significant number of mestizo
families.[8] The mestizo families were granted privileges in Madras which encouraged the development of the region.[9] The numerous privileges ranged from commercial to cultural and included the exemption of custom fees along with offers of land.[10] David Veevers argues that the EIC were able to ‘entrench their new settlement’ through the incorporation of different cultural groups, including mestizo families.[11] In the expansion and entrenchment of Madras, the role of women was very important due to the connections that emerged from a marriage. Many of the women in these marriages were from wealthy or connected families in the area and this was beneficial to the EIC as it opened up new avenues to pursue in terms of trade.[12]
The importance of mestizo women is highlighted by Joseph Collet, deputy governor of York
Fort in 1711. Although Collet was against marriages or ‘alliances’ between European men and
Indonesian women, he acknowledged ‘how useful they were in ingratiating traders into local
social and economic network’s’.[13] Collet’s recognition of the usefulness of these marriages and the importance of mestizo women to further the EIC in its goal to become a global trading company, highlights the vital role women played. Marriage did play a significant role as it created new allegiances and connections which would otherwise not have been formed.
When a voyage to southeast Asia began, the wives of the sailors and traders would stay behind and receive a small part of their husband’s wages during that time.[14] A petition
by Captain Keeling to allow his wife to accompany him on one such voyage broke the narrative.[15] TheEIC attempted to persuade Captain Keeling to withdraw his petition, however, Keeling argued that marriage to a partner and to the Company could only be kept ‘healthy’ if the wives could accompany their husbands to southeast Asia.[16] Voyages to the Indian Ocean could last for three years and not everyone who made the journey returned.[17] The possible finality of the voyages motivated women, such as Mrs Keeling, to take action beyond what was seen as appropriate in relation to gender roles. Despite the failure of the petition to achieve its aims, it shows that women were eager to make the journey, as Mrs Keeling had made the decision herself to accompany Captain Keeling, and could not be dissuaded from it.[18] By challenging the laws of the Company, Mrs Keeling was making a statement about how women were capable of making their own decisions. The refusal of the EIC to allow women to make the journey links back to the image of the ideal woman, as concerns were raised that the husband would seek to defend the wife from assault and insubordination on-board.[19] Mrs Keeling and the denied petition is an example of the limitation’s women faced and the views that held them back. It does, however, highlight that women were more active in society and promoting themselves as competent and capable.
Despite limitations for women during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, they were politically and economically active on a national and local level.[20] In relation to the EIC, women were involved through investments and the management of global trade.[21] Aske Laursen Brock and Misha Ewen argue that women were active, both formally and informally, in the EIC. Brock and Ewen use Elizabeth Dale, Rebecka Duteil and Mary Goodal as examples of the public role women had and their involvement in the EIC.[22] Despite legal limitations and the patriarchal nature of the EIC, these women were integral to the Company, participating in the global market and the commercial network.[23] Despite the popular view of women in England in the seventeenth century, there were exceptions to the norm. There were women who played an active role in business and established themselves as competent professionals. These women aided the expansion of the EIC, yet also challenged it. In order to receive their inheritance, which the EIC refused to give them, Dale, Duteil and Goodal all petitioned Parliament and the courts to regain it.[24] By challenging the Company in their patriarchal views, these women used the multiple resources and skills at their disposal to confront the EIC’s limiting rules. The women were crucial in the expansion of the EIC as their knowledge and skills greatly assisted the Company in its efforts to establish itself as a main competitor in the global trade stage.
The role of female petitioners in challenging the EIC and helping it to grow and expand as a
Company, cannot be overlooked. Women had to interact with the EIC on an economic and
political level. The Company had become one of the ‘biggest employers in Britain’ and more
people began to rely on it.[25] It was, however, difficult for English women connected to the
Company, as they often had to submit a petition just to guarantee their wages, inheritance and sometimes to make sure that their employment remained secure.[26] This interaction with the EIC highlights that women challenged the Company to achieve their aims despite the popular views held against them.
In the 1660s, it was written that women were not in local office due to their inability to learn
the law and be discrete.[27] The negative image of women had spread to encompass much of
society, however, Linda Colley argues that European women in India were freer to behave as
they wished.[28] Many women contributed to the Company through paperwork or meeting with visiting merchants.[29] It was also recorded that Marion Hastings used her husband’s work with the EIC to turn £100,000 in profit for herself, which she kept hidden from all.[30] Women were vital to the expansion of the Company at home and abroad due to their work towards the Company.
In southeast Asia, women had more freedom than in Europe. Men and women had separate
roles within society however there were certain areas that overlapped which did not exist in
European culture.[31] In southeast Asia, women were very prominent in trade and marketing as in the pre-colonial years, it was seen as the ‘female domain’.[32] Traders would often be working with female merchants. A 1727 source reported that ‘the women of Siam are the only merchants in buying goods, and [...] trade very considerably’.[33] This source reveals that the EIC relied heavily on women when trading. In order to establish the Company in southeast Asia, it was necessary to trade with women, which prompted their growth. A 1699 source also reported that in China, ‘money-changing is a great profession [...] managed by women’.[34] There were numerous economic professions which women contributed heavily to. Women were vitally important in the expansion of the EIC and their establishment in southeast Asia, as their trading networks included women. They were also prominent in the diplomatic sector, being valued extremely highly as mediators.[35] While this declined due to the preference for men that the Europeans brought with them, in the seventeenth century, the EIC had to negotiate and communicate with women.[36] These prominent businesswomen were needed in order for the EIC to develop as a company and expand as a global trading network.
The state of Aceh was frequented by various traders from both Europe and southeast Asia.[37] Described as the ‘largest, richest and most populous port on the Isle of Sumatra’ in the 1680s, Aceh was also known to be a very patriarchal state.[38] From 1641 to 1699, however, Aceh had four female rulers and one ruler, Sultanah Safiatuddin was reported to have been a better leader than her male predecessors.[39] Known as the ‘Jewel Affair’, the Sultanah refused to accept a convoy of jewels from the Dutch Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) on the grounds that her predecessor had ordered them and the state did not need them.[40] The Dutch refused to leave until the Jewels were taken and a compromise had to be made.[41] The ‘Jewel Affair’, however, highlights the strength of the Sultanah and how her decision making and leadership style were crucial to her reign and increased the acceptance she got as a female ruling the state. Sultanah Safiatuddin was dissuaded from remarrying after her husband’s death for fears that she would become ‘subservient’ to her husband.[42] While this does highlight the notion of male authority and domination, it shows that she had become a very popular ruler whom her subjects wished to keep in power. Being the ruler of the state meant that the trading companies had to interact and negotiate with her. This resulted in the EIC getting a factory in Aceh. The EIC, however, were not always eager to trade in Aceh due to competition from other merchants, despite the opportunities they were given by the rulers.[43] As a result, the Dutch VOC gained more favour from the rulers because of their military success in the area.[44] In the expansion of the EIC, the female rulers offered opportunities for the EIC to increase their trade in the region. This missed opportunity slowed down the EIC in their aim to grow as a company.
Even though the EIC had a particular view of women and what they should do, they used
female slaves to achieve their own goals. The Asian slave trade was quite vast and many
members of the EIC had slaves.[45] The act of resistance among the enslaved challenged and
hindered the expansion of the EIC. Resistance was quite high and there were many cases of
fleeing.[46] Women slaves would often run and also kill their masters.[47] Titas Chakraborty argues that slave resistance was detrimental to the interests of the EIC as their settlements relied heavily on household slavery, causing daily functions to falter.[48 ]Household slavery
encompassed nursing, cookery, housekeeping and other work.[49] The reliance on the enslaved to perform these roles meant that their resistance caused the EIC’s expansion into further areas to be restricted. By fleeing, and occasionally murdering, the enslaved could permanently escape which undermined the Company and the institution of slavery that they upheld.[50] Slaves were rarely caught, or they fled to a foreign state and converted to Islam to protect themselves against being forced back into slavery, therefore, if caught, the punishments were incredibly severe.[51] The EIC’s public image would suffer with the loss of the enslaved which they felt they had to rectify with harsh, often fatal, penalties.[52] One slave woman ran away as her master disapproved of her choice of partner, she was caught on her second planned escape and both her partner and her were hung, despite her pregnancy.[53] The restriction to the expansion of the EIC ensured that their actions were often harsh in order to protect their public image in the region.
To conclude, women had multiple roles in the expansion of the EIC, whether aiding or
restricting it. Political and economic involvement, from both European and Asian women,
contributed and challenged the EIC. Missed opportunities that the Aceh Sultanah offered,
hindered the expansion of the EIC as a global company. Marriage was very important in
creating connections with local families in certain regions. Many women aided the EIC,
through work or marriage, while many restricted the expansion to ensure that they were
protected, financially and physically. Despite their contributions, it is only in recent years that women are now being recognised for their role in the EIC.
Notes
[1] Jan De Bruyn, “The Ideal Lady and the Rise of Feminism in Seventeenth-Century England”, Mosaic: A Journal for the Inter-disciplinary Study of Literature, 17/1 (1984), pp. 20-22.
[2] Aske Laursen Brock and Misha Ewen, “Women’s Public Lives: Navigating the East India Company, Parliament and the Courts in Early Modern England”, Gender and History, 33/1 (2021), p. 4.
[3] Anthony Reid, “Female Roles in Pre-Colonial Southeast Asia”, Modern Asian Studies, 22/3 (1988), pp. 634-637.
[4] Krutika Haraniya, “Charnock- Linking Kolkata and a Rock”, Live History India, (2017)
<https://www.livehistoryindia.com/snapshort-histories/2017/07/24/-charnock---linking-kolkata-a-rock> [Accessed 12 April 2021].
[5] P. Thankappan Nair, Job Charnock: The Founder of Calcutta: An Anthology, (Calcutta: 1977), pp. 5-26; Haraniya, “Charnock- Linking Kolkata and a Rock”.
[6] Nair, Job Charnock, pp. 30.
[7] Hermionede Almeida and George H. Gilpin, Indian Renaissance: British Romantic Art and the Prospect of India, (Aldershot: 2005), p. 228.
[8] David Veevers, The Origins of the British Empire in Asia 1600-1750 (Cambridge, 2020), p. 65.
[9] Veevers, The Origins, p. 67.
[10] Veevers, The Origins, p. 67.
[11] Veevers, The Origins, p. 68.
[12] Veevers, The Origins, p. 65.
[13] Kathleen Wilson, “Rethinking the Colonial State: Family, Gender, and Governmentality invEighteenth Century British Frontiers”, The American Historical Review, 116/5 (2011), p. 1302.
[14] Julia Schleck, “The Marital Problems of the East India Company”, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 17/3 (2017), pp. 87-88.
[15] Schleck, “The Marital Problems”, pp. 87-88.
[16] Schleck, “The Marital Problems”, pp. 88-97.
[17] Schleck, “The Marital Problems”, pp. 86-87.
[18] Schleck, “The Marital Problems”, p. 92.
[19] Schleck, “The Marital Problems”, p. 89.
[20] Brock and Ewen, “Women’s Public Lives”, p. 4.
[21] Brock and Ewen, “Women’s Public Lives”, pp. 4-5.
[22] Brock and Ewen, “Women’s Public Lives”, p. 3.
[23] Brock and Ewen, “Women’s Public Lives”, p. 11.
[24] Brock and Ewen, “Women’s Public Lives”, p. 11.
[25] Aske Laursen Brock, “Female Petitioners to the English East India Company 1600-1753”, Economic History Society: The Long Run, (2020 <https://ehsthelongrun.net/2020/05/05/female-petitioners-to-the-english-east-india-company-1600-1753/> [Accessed 13 April 2021].
[26] Brock, “Female Petitioners to the English East India Company 1600-1753”.
[27] David Veevers, “Gender”, in William A. Pettigrew and David Veevers (eds.), The Corporation as a Protagonist in Global History, c. 1550-1750, (Leiden; Boston: 2019), p. 190.
[28] Veevers, “Gender”, p. 190; Linda Colley, “Gendering the Globe: The Political and Imperial Thought of Phillip Francis”, Past and Present, 209 (2010), p. 137.
[29] Colley, “Gendering the Globe”, p. 137.
[30] Colley, “Gendering the Globe”, p. 137.
[31] Reid, “Female Roles in Pre-Colonial Southeast Asia”, pp. 629-31.
[32] Reid, “Female Roles in Pre-Colonial Southeast Asia”, p. 634.
[33] As cited in Reid, “Female Roles in Pre-Colonial Asia”, p. 634.
[34] As cited in Reid, “Female Roles in Pre-Colonial Asia”, p. 634.
[35] Reid, “Female Roles in Pre-Colonial Southeast Asia”, pp. 636-637.
[36] Reid, “Female Roles in Pre-Colonial Southeast Asia”, pp. 636-637.
[37] Sher Banu A. L. Khan, “Response and Resilience: Aceh’s Trade in the Seventeenth Century”,Indonesia, 100 (2015), p. 35.
[38] Khan, “Response and Resilience”, p. 35; Sher Banu A. L. Khan, “Men of Prowess and Women of Piety: A Case Study of Aceh Dar Al-Salam in the Seventeenth Century”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 44/2 (2013), p. 206.
[39] Khan, “Men of Prowess and Women of Piety”, pp. 206-207.
[40] Khan, “Men of Prowess and Women of Piety”, pp. 209-210.
[41] Khan, “Men of Prowess and Women of Piety”, pp. 209-210.
[42] Barbara Watson Andaya, The Flaming Womb: Repositioning Women in Early Modern Southeast Asia, (USA: 2006), p. 164.
[43] Khan, “Response and Resilience”, pp. 40-41.
[44] Khan, “Response and Resilience”, p. 41.
[45] Richard B. Allen, “Ending the History of Silence: Reconstructing European Slave Trading in the Indian Ocean”, Scielo, (2017) <https://www.scielo.br/j/tem/a/yt3jzJWHggDttGr9qkGMJqL/?lang=en> [Accessed 14 April 2021].
[46] Titas Chakraborty, “Slave Trading and Slave Resistance in the Indian Ocean World: The Case of Early Eighteenth Century Bengal”, Slavery and Abolition, 40/4 (2019), p. 715.
[47] Chakraborty, “Slave Trading and Slave Resistance”, p. 715.
[48] Chakraborty, ‘Slave Trading and Slave Resistance”, pp. 715-716.
[49] Titas Chakraborty, “The Household Workers of the East India Company Ports of Pre-Colonial Bengal”, International Review of Social History, 64 (2019), p. 74.
[50] Chakraborty, “Slave Trading and Slave Resistance”, p. 716.
[51] Chakraborty, “Slave Trading and Slave Resistance”, p. 716.
[52] Chakraborty, “Slave Trading and Slave Resistance”, p. 716.
[53] Chakraborty, “Slave Trading and Slave Resistance”, p. 718.
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