October 11th , 2011 

                        The Great East India Company Adventure

by

Mr Gerald Davison

This lecture promises an exciting and very colourful tale of the building of a trading company that grew to be the biggest commercial undertaking the world has ever seen. Bringing tea, spices, silks, porcelain and other exotic commodities to grace the homes and lives of the British from the closing years of Elizabeth I's reign to the early years of Queen Victoria, this was a company that minted its own currency and maintained its own armies.

Biography

Gerald Davison, author, lecturer and former art dealer is a leading specialist in Asian art, culture and history.  He is a world authority on Chinese ceramics and his books on this aspect are among the standard works on the subject.  He has travelled extensively in South East Asia with long periods of time spent in China, Japan and the Philippines.   Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and of the Oriental Ceramic Society.

Reading List

The Honourable Company, by John Keay

The East India Company Book of Spices, by Antony Wild

The Corporation that Changed the World, by Nick Robins

Lords of the East, by Jean Sutton

The Business of Empire, by V Bowen

India under British Rule from the Foundation of the East India Company, by James Wheeler

The East India Company, by Philip Lawson

The Worlds of the East India Company, by H V Bowen, M Lincoln and N Rigby