235. The Viceroy, The Psychopath, and The Merchant: The Irish in Empire (Ep 3)

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0:21Empire listeners, I am very excited to tell you that our sold out London live show, Booze and Brews, is going on a UK tour and tickets are on sale now. Now, we are going to tell the story of all your favourite drinks and how they are linked to empire, from Indian pale ale to G &D. Look, I know the clink of a drink, it's not a sound we're unfamiliar with, but it is the appearance of these drinks in history and the stories that inform them. So we want to take a little bit of a closer look at all of that. Yes, we've got all sorts of strange stories for you, from early East India company men who were so afraid of drinking the water in India that they drank alcohol for breakfast.

0:59Breakfast, lunch and dinner, in fact. Yes, I know. All of them. Let's not be discriminatory here. It was quite pervasive of all. It was an equal meal opportunity. Don't worry if you don't drink. We're also going to be looking at the extraordinary history of tea. And I'm going to tell you what, if you think the British love tea now, you should have seen the 18th and 19th centuries. They imported so much tea from China that taxes on it earned the same amount of money for the government as all tax on land, property and income. And in fact, that's what they had to start the opium trade, wasn't it?

1:32In fact, the opium wars. But that is another story. I feel like we're telling too much. But look, we're just bursting. You can tell we're bursting with stories. And that's not the only thing that's going to be bursting on our show because I've got the story of one of my ancestors who exploded out of a barrel of rum. Yes, I know. It is actually my favourite Dalrymple story. You know I get sick of him talking about Dalrymple. This one blows up though, so I'm quite happy. We're going to be at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow on the 30th of May. We're going to be at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham on the 1st of June, the Barbican in York on the 2nd of June, and we finish off at the Beacon in Bristol on the 3rd of June.

2:07So we will be doing our shtick full of amazing and surprising historical insights, answers to your fantastic questions, and we sold out very quickly last year, so don't wait around for your tickets. Yes, I cannot stress this enough. We are always reeling by how quickly the tickets go, within a day in some cases. So tickets are on sale now. Don't hesitate. Just go to empirepoduk.com, empirepoduk.com to get yours. Make sure you don't miss out because, you know, we'll miss you if you're not there. Yes, get your tickets now and see you in the summer.

2:50Fare you well, Port Erin's Isle. I now must leave you for a while. The rents and taxes are so high I can no longer stay. From Dublin's Quay I sailed away and landed here, but yesterday me shoes and breeches and shirts are now in all that's in my kit. I've dropped in to tell you now the sights I've seen before I go. Where is the nation or the land that reared such men as Paddy's land? Where's the man more noble than he they call poor Irish Pat? We fought for England's queen and beat her foes wherever seen. We've taken the town of Delhi if you please. Come tell me that. We pursued the Indian chief, the Nen Asab, the cursed thief, who skivered babies and mothers and left them in their gore.

3:31But why should we be so oppressed in the land of St. Patrick's blessed? Hello, by the way. Welcome to Empire. Hello. With me. Sorry, I've got carried away. Hello. Welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnon. And me, William Durinpool. I just got very excited to read this. I can see. Again, it's Professor Jane Olmour, author of Making Empire, Ireland, Imperialism and the Early Modern World. And I've been banging on about this too, Jane, for a while. I found this ballad hugely popular in America. And it's all about sort of Irish emigres having to flee after the famine, landing up in America. The feeling of the poids about it, isn't it?

4:09This land of weeping effigies and this sort of stuff. And it goes on. It's quite large. But the thing that struck me, and it's from about, I think, circa 1906 is where this particular sheet music was that was published in Philadelphia. But even by then, it was quite a popular ballad, Paul Patmos emigrate in America, New York in particular, and Philadelphia. And the reference to, and I just thought, oh, God, this is exactly what Jane was talking about. The reference to, we did imperialism for you. You did imperialism to us. When does it end? I thought was exactly what we were kind of touching on in our early episode.

4:45And Jane, you've written this extraordinary book, Making Empire, which makes the case at some length and very convincingly to me, I have to say, that Ireland is basically the blueprint, the roadmap, the laboratory for what the English will then go and do on a far bigger scale, on a far more enriching expedition. tradition but that the methods and the ideas and in many cases the actual people are formed by the Irish experience but then also this very complicated and interesting thing that the Irish like the Scots who love both to be the kind of the brave hearts against the English are completely complicit in some of the very very worst atrocities.

5:31Yeah as the ballad says you know from mutiny onwards we fought for you. Why are you being like this? So first of all, what are we talking about in this episode? Because we've not even heard your voice. We've just gone on and on and on. Not heard a peep. We didn't really do that at all. Not a peep. I was counting. I was like, when's she poor woman getting in and speak? So what are we talking about today? We're going to talk about three really interesting figures of Ireland. One is a man called Gerald Anger, who's the founding father of Bombay. He is living in India in the 1660s and 1670s and that's really when ireland's first serious engagement with india begins obviously through the east india company then we're going to fast forward and talk about john nicholson that imperial psychopath of yours i had lots of fun with him in the last movie because he's kind of the the most he's well as one of his contemporaries that he's the very incarnation of violence and in this moment when the british are reeling from the massacre as they see it of their innocent women and children on the 11th of May 1857 and then in Kampor and so on.

6:32It is Nicholson who really leads the counterattack and does so with the most astonishing violence. Unleashes what they then term the devil's wind, which reaps so many lives. So Nicholson we're going to talk about. And who's the third person you picked out for us? And then we're going to talk an incredible diplomat, a man called Lord Dufferin. And Lord Dufferin is of Scottish planter's stock and his family home is in Clandiboy, which is in County Down. And you and I are friends of the family. We are friends of the family indeed. And that house is really a shrine to Lord Dufferin. And when I had a show on East India Company paintings in London, a lot of it was borrowed from Lindy Dufferin, who's our mutual friend.

7:10Who you dedicated to your book to. Indeed, yes. Sadly the late. Much loved. Sadly the late. I know the name Dufferin because of, and actually it's associated with good things. Lady Dufferin's hospitals. I mean, I've read a lot about her hospitals through 1920s and 30s. Yes. that they still exist. I'm so glad you mentioned Harriet Dufferin because what she does for women's health in India is truly important. And of course, the fact that so many of those Dufferin hospitals still survive, but Dufferin's name is still on roads in India. And of course, then in Belfast, there's a big statue of Dufferin outside Belfast City Hall, as indeed we have of Nicholson in Dungana.

7:45A more controversial figure. Yeah, and Lisburn, without any context. I visited the one in Lisburn recently, William. There's no context of what he did in India. And if I'm not wrong, one of the statues of Nicholson was taken from India and taken back to Northern Ireland. It was. And that's actually in his old school, which is in Dungannon, which is in County Tyrone. And that's where that one is. And to Indianize, and not frankly that anyone remembers this story here really anymore, but certainly in terms of Indian history, this is slightly like putting up a statue of Goebbels or Himmler. This is a guy who is really genuinely responsible for some of the most blood-curdling atrocities ever committed by British imperialists anywhere in the world.

8:24Oh, completely. But he's also then a great Victorian hero. You know, the Lion of the Punjab and, you know, the hero of Delhi. So a huge... There's actually a biography called The Hero of Delhi. Oh, is there? Yeah. So look, if I weren't holding a microphone, I would be rubbing my hands with interest because this sounds like really fascinating stuff. And it also sounds like that bridge between being the oppressed to becoming the oppressors. Certainly by the time we get to people like Nicholson, there's no doubt about that. So can we first of all though start with what the world is like and why these men are suddenly leaving Ireland?

8:55Because they had enough on their plates. You know they had Ulster, they were setting down their routes. At what point do they start sort of looking outside the realms of their own country? And just remind us in a sense where we've left early 17th century Ireland. What is the world that these guys are leaving and why are they going to India? Well Cromwell has obviously wrecked havoc on Ireland. We've seen the expropriation of 8 million Irish acres and a revolution in landholding. And really that Protestant ascendancy now is very much the name of the game in an Irish context. But it's more than that.

9:30We now have a form of economic imperialism. The whole Irish economy is there to serve empire with the Navigation Acts. Just explain what the Navigation Acts are. The Navigation Act or legislation passed by the Westminster Parliament that says Ireland has to export everything via London. In other words, London controls the Irish economy. But it's more than that. It creates a subservient economy. And what we find in this period is that Ireland really is all about provisioning empire. And that comes out of the Navigation Act. All that lovely Irish butter and all this lovely Irish bacon. Salt beef, salt pork.

10:06Yeah, Ireland feeds the Caribbean, but it's also very important for the ships going to Asia because they're on the way. Well, they stop on the way back often because they need water or supplies, but some also will stop on the way out. And some of the timbers, there's actually ships for East India Company built in County Cork. So there is a connection there as well. But going back, Ireland at this point, obviously, is offering lots of opportunities because of the massive transfer of land. But younger sons or those seeking adventure want to be part of, if you want these westward and eastward enterprises.

10:42And this brings us to Gerald Anger, who was born probably in the 1630s. And he's a younger son. His grandfather has been a legal imperialist, one of these men on the make who did very well during the plantation. His other grandfather was the Archbishop of Dublin. So he goes to London and now we're talking during the 1650s. and he has an entree into the East India Company. One of the most important figures in the East India Company basically takes him under his wing and he then is signed up as a factor or an agent. And then in 1661, by which point Charles II is now back on the throne, got rid of Oliver Gromwell, off Ainger goes, spends brief time in Goa, then straight up to Surat, where he rises through the ranks very quickly at the English factory in Surat.

11:35Explain what the factory is. The factory is not a kind of a smokestack in the Victorian sense. Manufacturing industry centre. It's like an Oxbridge College full of English factors. Factors and basically a huge warehouse where they store goods that they then ship back to London. William, you know, and you've talked about this before and you've written about it really well, but this is a really interesting pivot point in Indian history and what they're actually trading. So it used to be spices and then they get sort of booted out by the Dutch from Indonesia, which is the most lucrative market. But it actually does them a huge favour because they pivot to something that's going to matter to Aingea.

12:09So the early East India Company is not about India at all. It's the company of London merchants trading with the East Indies, which in 16th century speak actually means Indonesia. and it's only after they have a squabble with the Dutch that suddenly they pivot away from spices and Indonesia towards textiles and India and this is the point at which India is gearing up to become the world dominant force in the textile market both fancy fancy textiles like things are called kalamkaris that are painted hangings that you might find in a Venetian palace hanging from a four posts of bed, down to very, very simple things like peace cotton goods, which just means long, long rolls of cotton, which is the cheapest and the best in the world.

12:55But it's also used to buy enslaved people. So a lot of that coarse cotton is actually used in the slave trade. As a currency. As a currency. And Ainger moves in at exactly this moment. And the calico craze is attributed to him. So it's really thanks to the time that he's spending in Surat that we see what is known then as this calico craze. And calico is not some sort of fancy arts and crafts thing, like it sounds. It actually means the most expensive, super luxury textiles, which the East India Company quickly dominates the market for and sells to Europe. So when you go now to Versailles or go to some palace in Venice, it is East India Company textiles that now hang from four poster beds.

13:35Well, I mean, it does sound like it's sort of like the Bitcoin of its time. It's sort of internationally used, doesn't recognise any borders, and is so integral in the slave trade as well as wealth creation in Britain. Angel, where does he sort of position himself? Because he's working for the company. He answers to who and how much autonomy does he have to do whatever he wants? Well, by 1669, he's the president of the factory in Surat, but he also then becomes the second governor of this new colony, Bombay, that has come to the crown when Charles II has married Catherine of Bruganza, of the Portuguese princess.

14:11And there's a very comical moment when this document arrives in London from the Portuguese and somehow the map has got detached. So all there is is this marriage contract saying we offer you, I think, Tangiers and Bombay, spelt in the document. B-U-M. B-U-M, B-Y-E. And there's a big debate in Whitehall about exactly where Bombay is and they assume it must be somewhere in South America. Brazil. Brazil. Actually, of course, it's the best harbour in the whole west coast of India. And it'll become a major, major naval asset for the English in the next two centuries. And Anger realises its potential instantly.

14:49But it's not just about trade. And, you know, he lays the foundation for trade there. First thing he has to do is secure Bombay. So he builds these incredible forts. And William, you'll have seen Whirly Fort, which is Anger's fort as you drive in from the airport. That's actually him. Oh, that's Anger's fort. Just describe what it looks like. We know what it looks like. It is star-shaped, tres italien, new style fortifications. Absolutely formidable. A bit like Mombasa. Very formidable. Or Aguada near Goa. Built specifically against artillery, the new style of warfare. And built more against fellow Europeans.

15:22He wants to keep the wretched Dutch out. Right. As well as, obviously, the Mughals. And this is a period when the Dutch just going down in India and the English are rising up. But it's not. I mean, we know that now looking back. But it's not a settled affair. But it's not a settled thing. And there's also, at the same time, a lot of Dutch hanging out, particularly on the east coast, at places like Masulipatnam, Masulipatam. Cochin. Cochin. And at any moment, you know, the Dutch could be defeating the English in India, as they have done in Indonesia. And actually, in fact, they now go into decline.

15:53And India is the force that is sort of driving the English conquest of the trade of India. Right. I mean, on the one hand, he seems like a really militarily sound bloke. but he's a bit of a dandy and he likes the party as well. I mean, just give us this other side of his character. Can I just say, it's not just that he's very smart in terms of the fortifications. This man sets out to plant and colonise Bombay the way his grandparents have colonised Ireland. So in other words, we see this language of colonisation, plantation in his correspondence. And he sets up the legal system in Bombay. Including, if I'm not wrong, witch trials.

16:31I'm not sure about that. You keep on saying that, will you? I must check that's Phil Stern. It's in Phil Stern's book. Yeah, yeah, we'll have to check that. But what he does is he lays the foundations, basically, of the English legal system in Bombay. And if you go to the high court today, they credit Ainger as the founding father of the legal system, not just in Bombay, in India, because, of course, it's later copied in Madras and Calcutta. But the other thing that he does that is so important is he attracts diamond merchants up from Goa. He brings in textile workers and then he does a lot of drainage.

17:04So improvement is very much his mantra. So he really lays the economic foundations, brings in Parsis. It's he who gives the Malabar Hill Tower of Silence to Parsis to encourage them down from Surat. It's all about religious toleration. Why? Because that's good for business. And Ainger may be a committed Protestant, but he's absolutely committed to having this diverse cosmopolitan community. and that actually attracts people in. He's also looking for new products. So he's out there saying, can anyone find any opium, any bang we can send back to England? In addition to doing all this for the company, he has five of his own ships.

17:43So he's doing an awful lot in terms of private trading. So this man is an extraordinary business person. And in a single voyage, a French priest comes to visit in Bombay and he says, you know, Ainger's in terrible mood because one of his ships has been taken and it had cargo worth 45 ,000 pounds on it. I don't know if that's true or not. He might be a bit pissed off. Well, it's an absolute fortune. So you're dealing with somebody who is making a vast amount of money very, very quickly, but someone who is also putting in place, if you want the economic infrastructure, and we talked about dairy, this is the Indian equivalent of the dairy plantation.

18:23So he's seen it, they've done it, and you're exactly your example of the laboratory is repeating. He must have felt like he was on top of the world and untouchable then. Well, he did. And of course, it takes 18 months for communications to go back and forth between London and Mumbai, or Bombay as it is then. So he's tremendously allowed to use his own initiative. The company does complain though. We should say that at this point, a lot of the company servants are living in a very hybrid lifestyle. Exactly. In 1642, there are two East India Company men who convert to Islam and run off in the Agra factory and join the Mughals.

18:53And this is exactly the same period as Ainge's in Bombay. And we have this description in your book of him at meals. He has his trumpets usher in his courses and soft music at the table. If he moves out of his chamber, the silver staves await him. And downstairs, the guards received him. If he goes abroad, the Bandarines and Moors under two standards march before him. He goes sometimes in his coach, drawn by large white oxen, sometimes on horseback, and at other times palanquins carried by colors of Muslim and porters, always having a sombrero of state carried over him. Now, the sombrero of state means an umbrella, which is what a mogul general would do.

19:30It's a parasol. Actually, back in Ireland, they say he's got notions. Listen, that's exactly what I meant by sort of being a dandy. I mean, he kind of feels like he's a man on the verge of being out of control. And you said the East India Company didn't like it. He's setting himself as a de facto mogul, but he's meant to be working for them. And that's what they say. Is that what gets up their nose? They say profit, not pleasure, is what we're about. Right. And of course, Ainger writes back saying, oh, I've only ever done what you told me to do. So they do fall out. That's all. And they're about to fire him and he resigns, but he actually dies of some dysenteric disease.

20:06And he's actually buried in Surat. So next time you're at the English graveyard in Surat, he's got the most extraordinary grave. It's this Indo-Islamic two-story structure with this exquisite blue and white tiles in this sort of little roof. It's extraordinary. And this is one of these things that we forget is that the English at this time and the Dutch on this coast, they have their Mogul gardens where they have often their dancing girls. And this is an acceptable form of concubinage. And we have descriptions of the dancing girls being brought in and all these gentlemen disappearing off into the mango groves.

20:42And then we also have these tombs at the end of their lives when they're basically buried in sort of Baroque Mughal tombs. And both the Dutch and the English have these. And they're very elaborate. And their sketch, this is one very nice little link, the English and the Dutch graveyards are sketched by another young Englishman who's in Surat exactly at this time called John Vanborough. And he then goes back shortly afterwards and designs the domes of Castle Howard. Oh, how interesting. But the other thing that I find so fascinating, I'm not so sure about the Dancing Girls in Ainge. He's a very zealous, committed Protestant.

21:17I never stopped anyone. Well, that's true. But you know what I'm very interested in is the way he has this tremendous interest in indigenous peoples. So he collects Parsi's, Aroastrian tracts, which he has copied and then sent back to the British Library and to Edward Hyde, who's actually the librarian at the Bodleian. But the other thing he does, he brings a printing press to Bombay to print Brahminy texts. Oh, wow. It's really interesting. So he's extraordinary. He's a scholar. He's a scholar as well as being a party man. But this is not what we would associate with somebody who is rapacious about making money.

21:51The idea of racial superiority hasn't yet entered. He's still interested. That comes later. He has a deep respect for the people around him. I really, and I think he has the languages as well. And that's one reason why he's so successful. But he's always worried about gifts and presents. So a lot of the correspondence is about that. And then sending gifts home because company says, for God's sake, don't send any more tigers back because they eat everything. It's very important to remember that at this point in the 1640s and 1650s, the English are not in a position to be that snooty about the Mughals.

22:24The Mughals have got the money. The Mughals have got the money. Do you remember this is Thomas Rowe? This is Thomas Rowe worrying about what he's going to give that's going to impress a Mughal. And while there is unease and the sense that these are foreigners and they have different customs, there's also the sense that these guys are a million times richer than anyone will ever be in Britain. But the Mughals don't like Angel because he prints his own coinage. and he has a lot of dealings with Shivaji. He actually sends one of his men. So Shivaji being the great Maratha, the Maratha leader who actually harries and pushes back against the Maratha.

22:55And indeed burns Surat at this time. And Ainger is the one who leads the attacks against him in 1670. Shivaji's coronation, one of Ainger's men is there. Upon Rajke. And you've got this wonderful account, again in the archive of the East India Company in London, of Shivaji's coronation. We should say that this is a crucial moment in the sense in the history of Hindu nationalism in that Shivaji is very consciously at the time pushing back against Muslim rule and he brings two different sets of Brahmins onto the hilltop. There are the local Brahmins who are there to propitiate the local nature spirits of Maharashtra and the local gods.

23:39And he brings Brahmins from Varanasi, who in a sense sort of talk to Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu and the great cosmic gods. And this is today not unfairly looked on as a major break in Indian history, when you have the beginning of Hindus taking back their own land. That's certainly how it's interpreted in India today. Yeah. And Ainger has very good dealings with both Shivaji and also with the Mughals, even though he irritates them when he issues his own coinage. But just one other thing that I have to say about him, he remains very loyal to Ireland. His siblings are there and he's making an absolute fortune.

24:18Would he have described himself as Irish or Anglo-Irish or English? He describes himself as English, but his colleagues in the East Indy Company call him Irish. Interesting. It's really interesting. This man is born and bred in Ireland. Do they look down on him? More they're jealous of him. But you do get other examples of Irishmen who do well in East India Company and they are looked down on because of their Irishness. I've seen them. I've seen sort of like letters written about, I'm paraphrasing, barely better than the natives. He's Irish. These kind of descriptions of Irish people working in India.