FRESNE DU FRANCHEVILLE Joseph Histoire de la Compagnie des Indes

Second edition of this essential source on the colonial trade of the East India Company.

Joseph Dufresne de Francheville (1704–1781), born in Doullens, was a writer, founder of the Berlin Literary Gazette and a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts.

Originally destined for a life in the clergy, Dufresne de Francheville secured posts in financial offices, leading him, at the age of 24, to conceive the project for l’Histoire générale et particulière des finances, the aim of which was to ‘enlighten the government’. This Histoire générale et particulière des finances aimed to trace the history of French finances across 40 volumes. The project was never fully realised, as only three volumes were published. 

The History of the East India Company was originally the third volume of this General History of Finance, devoted to the economy and trade of the Company, first published by de Bure in 1738. However, this third volume on the East India Company was reprinted on its own in 1746, with its own title page, as evidenced by our copy.

This work is the first major history written about the Company since its creation by the King’s Council, at Colbert’s instigation, in 1664.

The author presents an institutional and economic history of the Company from its inception, drawing on internal archives comprising numerous official documents: concessions, privileges, edicts and letters, making this work an unrivalled source on the organisation of colonial trade.

In particular, he examines the origins of the companies, the discovery of the East Indies via the Cape of Good Hope, the administrative organisation, finances, privileges and goods.

The volume is adorned with a few vignettes, headpieces and tailpieces.

A fine copy, complete, with scuffing and a missing section of leather on the binding, blunt corners, some pages discoloured, pagination errors on pages 433 to 440 corrected by hand, and a duplicate leaf containing pages 377–78 bound after page 638.