County, commerce and contacts: Hampshire and the East India Company in the eighteenth Century

The East India Company’s eighteenth-century provincial impact was both extensive and profound. Its relationship with the key seaboard county of Hampshire is examined and assessed via what the county and Company had to offer each other in terms of supplies and services, and via the links with, and impact upon, the Isle of Wight. That many Company employees were drawn to Hampshire and what individual case studies can reveal are also examined.