William Bolts (7 February 1739 – 1808) was a Dutch-born British merchant active in India. He began his career as an employee of the East India Company, and subsequently became an independent merchant. He is best known today for his 1772 book, Considerations on India Affairs, which detailed the administration of the East India Company in Bengal which began shortly after their victory in the Battle of Plassey in June 1757. The observations and experiences he recorded offer a unique resource for scholars inquiring into the nature of Company rule in Bengal. Throughout his life, Bolts continued to propose and execute various trading ventures on his own behalf and in conjunction with various commercial and governmental partners. The ventures of individual traders, like Bolts, did much to spur governments and large corporations into the expansion of their own interests.
Origin William Bolts was born in Amsterdam on 7 February 1739.William Bolts's will made in Lisbon on 12 August 1805 and proved in London on 7 September 1808, National Archives, PRO, PROB 11/1485, sig. 710; cited by H. V. Bowen, entry on William Bolts in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, Vol. 6, pp. 496–7. The baptismal register of the English Reformed Church at Amsterdam records his baptism on 21 February 1739. His parents were William and Sarah Bolts.Charles Piot, "Deux publications inconnues, de Guillaume Bolts", Bulletin du Bibliophile Belge, Bruxelles, tome XIII (2e serie, tome IV), 1857, pp. 81–4. Bolts himself declared that his father was a native of Heidelberg and therefore claimed to be "a subject of Germany", although at the time of this statement he was attempting to get out of legal problems with the Company.Willem G. J. Kuiters, The British in Bengal, 1756–1773: a Society in Transition seen through the Biography of a Rebel: William Bolts (1739–1808), Paris, Indes savantes, 2002, p. 97. Some sources suggest that Bolts himself was born in Germany.Bowen 2004: "[...] born on 7 February 1739 on the continent, probably in Germany"; Kuiters 2002, p. 97: "Whether born in Holland or Germany, it is certain that Bolts felt himself to be more English than anything else and that his colleagues in the Company's service had never considered him as otherwise". Many writers have claimed that Bolts was of ethnic Dutch origin, although writer Willem G.J. Kuiters notes that this claim appears to originate with a single source, the from 1812, and is not confirmed by Dutch archival sources.Kuiters 2002, p. 103, n. 28.
Service in the East India Company When Bolts was 15, he left for England. According to a deposition he made in 1801, Bolts lived in Portugal in 1755 where he spent some time working in the diamond trade. Four years later, Bolts decided to venture to Bengal, where he was employed in Calcutta as a factor in the service of the East India Company.William Bolts, "A Short Chronological Narrative of Events ", Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, Ohio, John G. White Zamboni ms Wq 091.92, B 639s, f.1; cited in Barry M. Gough and Robert J. King, "William Bolts: An Eighteenth Century Merchant Adventurer", Archives: the Journal of the British Records Association, vol.xxxi, no.112, April 2005, pp.8–28, p.10. A. J. van der Aa, Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden, Haarlem, J.J. van Brederode, 2 Deel, 1854. He learned to speak Bengali, in addition to his other languages, English, Dutch, German, Portuguese and French. Later, he was appointed to the Company's Benares (Varanasi) factory, where he opened a woolens mart, developed saltpeter manufacturing, established opium plantations, imported cotton, and promoted the trade in diamonds from the Panna and Chudderpoor (Chhatarpur) mines in Bundelkhand.William Bolts, "A Short Chronological Narrative of Events ", Cleveland Public Library, John G. White Zamboni ms Wq 091.92, B 639s; and P.J. Marshall, East Indian Fortunes, Oxford, 1976, p.221. Précis de l'Origine, de la Marche et de la Chûte de la Compagnie d'Asie et d'Afrique dans les Ports du Littoral Autrichien, Liege, 1785, pp.6–7. William Bolts, Considerations on India Affairs, London, 1772-5, Vol.II, p.42; cited in Willem G. J. Kuiters, The British in Bengal, 1756–1773: a Society in Transition seen through the Biography of a Rebel: William Bolts (1739–1808), Paris, Indes savantes, 2002, p.114.
He came into conflict with the East India Company in 1768, possibly because diamonds were a favorite means for Company employees to secretly remit back home profits made by private trade in India, which they were officially forbidden to engage in. He announced in September of that year that he intended to start up a newspaper in Calcutta (which would have been India's first modern newspaper), saying that he had "in manuscript many things to communicate which most intimately concerned every individual", but he was directed to quit Bengal, and proceed to Madras and from thence to take his passage to England.William Bolts, Considerations on India Affairs, London, 1772, Part II, Vol.III, p.528; cited in J. Natarajan, Report of the Press Commission, Part 2, History of Indian Journalism, New Delhi, Government of India Publication Division, 1955, p.4. Company officials declared him bankrupt, "to the irretrievable loss of his Fortune", he later claimed.William Bolts, "A Short Chronological Narrative of Events ", Cleveland Public Library, John G. White Zamboni ms Wq 091.92, B 639s, f.4. He never seemed to have been able to redeem himself in the eyes of the Company, and in London and elsewhere fought a rearguard action against his many opponents within it.William Bolts, Considerations on India Affairs, London, 1772-5, I, passim; Harry Verelst, A View of the Rise, Progress and Present State of the English Government in Bengal, London, 1772, passim; L.S. Sutherland, The East India Company in Eighteenth-Century Politics, Oxford, 1952, pp. 219–22, 255–8.
Considerations on India Affairs The rearguard action occurred in 1772 with the publication of his book Considerations on India Affairs, in which he attacked the administration of the East India Company in Bengal; and in particular complained of the arbitrary power exercised by the authorities and of his own deportation. Considerations was translated into French and enjoyed wide circulation, which contributed to his fame on the Continent.Kaunitz's to Joseph II, 7 August 1787, "Teehandel in Ostindien und China"; cited in Karl Ottmar von Aretin, "Fürst Kaunitz und die österreichisch-ostindische Handelscompagnie von 1775", Vierteljahrsschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgesichte, 46 (3), 1959, S.361–377. The observations and experiences he records still offer a unique resource for scholars inquiring into the nature of Company rule in Bengal.William Bolts, Considerations on India Affairs, London, 1772; Lucy S. Sutherland, The East India Company in Eighteenth-Century Politics, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1952, pp.219–22, 231.Abdul Salaam Khursheed, Sahafat Bar-e Sagheer main; Maskeen Ali Hijazi, Nai Sahafat.
The voyage of the Giuseppe e Teresa, 1776–1781
In 1775, Bolts offered his services to the government of the Holy Roman Empire, putting forward a proposal for re-establishing Austrian trade with India from the Adriatic port of Trieste. His proposal was accepted by the government of Empress Maria Theresa, and on 24 September 1776, Bolts sailed from Leghorn (today's Livorno) in the dominions of Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the younger son of the Empress, to India in command of a ship under the Imperial flag, the former Indiaman Earl of Lincoln, renamed the Giuseppe e Teresa (also called Joseph et Thérèse or Joseph und Therese). He took with him a ten-year charter authorizing him to trade under Imperial colors between Austria's Adriatic ports and Persia, India, China and Africa, and from Africa and Madagascar to America."Octroi de Sa Majesté l'Imperatrice Reine Apostolique, accordé au Sieur Guillaume Bolts, à Vienne le 5 Juin 1775", Guillaume Bolts, Recueil de pièces authentiques, relatives aux affaires de la ci-devant Société impériale asiatique de Trieste, gérées à Anvers, Antwerp, 1787, pp.45–49. This enterprise required substantial capital, which Bolts sought in the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium), and he brought in the Antwerp banker, Charles Proli, and his associates, the bankers I.C.I. Borrikens and D. Nagel.Franz von Pollack-Parnau, "Eine österreich-ostindische Handelskompanie, 1775–1785: Beitrag zur österreichische Wirtschaftsgeschichte unter Maria Theresia und Joseph II", Vierteljahrsschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgesichte, Beiheft 12, Stuttgart, 1927, S.24. Jan Denuce, "Charles de Proli en de Aziatische Kompagnie", Antwerpsch Archievenblad, fasc.1, 1932, pp.3–64. Helma Houtman-De Smedt, Charles Proli, Antwerps zakenman en bankier, 1723–1786: een biografische en bedrijfshistorische studie, Brussel, Paleis der Academiën, 1983, Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België: Klasse der Letteren, no.108.
Colonisation of Delagoa Bay In the next few years Bolts established factories on the Malabar Coast, on the South East African coast at Delagoa Bay and at the Nicobar Islands.Fulvio Babudieri, "Le vicende della 'Compagnia Asiatica di Trieste'", Archeografo Triestino, IV Serie, Vol.XLIX (XCVII della raccolta), 1989, articolo no.1130, pp.217–234. Michal Wanner, "William Bolts a Císařská asijská společnost v Terstu", Dějiny a současnost, 23/5, 2001, s.11–16; and idem, "Imperial Asiatic Company in Trieste—The Last Attempt of the Habsburg Monarchy to Penetrate East Indian Trade, 1781–1785", 5th International Congress of Maritime History, Royal Naval College, Greenwich, 23–27 June 2008. John Everaert, "Willem Bolts: India Regained and Lost: Indiamen, Imperial Factories and Country Trade (1775–1785)", in K.S. Mathew (ed.), Mariners, Merchants, and Oceans: Studies in Maritime History, New Delhi, Manohar, 1995, pp.363–369. His aim in establishing a factory at Delagoa Bay was to use it as a base for trade between East Africa and the West coast ports of India.Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv (HHStA), Ostindische Compagnie (OIC), iv; cited in Sven H. Carlson, Trade and Dependency, Uppsala, Acta Universitatis Upsalensis, 1984, Studia Historica Upsalensis, No.138, p.112. He procured three ships to conduct this "country" trade, as trade by Europeans between India and other non-European destinations was called. During his voyage out, he obtained Brazilian cochineal beetles at Rio de Janeiro, and transported them to Delagoa Bay, thereby predating the introduction to Bengal of this insect for the making of scarlet dyes and carmine. The Imperial flag did not fly for long over Delagoa Bay, as alarmed Portuguese authorities who claimed the place as their own sent a 40-gun frigate and 500 men from Goa to remove Bolts's men in April 1781, and to found the Presidio of Lourenço Marques (Maputo) that established a permanent Portuguese presence there.Carl Wadström, An Essay on Colonization, vol.1, London, 1794, pp.187–195; B. Struck, "Österreichs Kolonialversuche im 18. Jahrhundert", Völkerkunde: Beiträge zur Erkenntnis von Mensch und Kultur, Bd.III, 1 Jahrgang, 1927, S.184–193; Franz von Pollack-Parnau, "Eine österreich-ostindische Handelskompanie, 1775–1785: Beitrag zur österreichische Wirtschaftsgeschichte unter Maria Theresia und Joseph II", Vierteljahrsschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgesichte, Beiheft 12, Stuttgart, 1927, S.81–82; Alexandre Lobato, Os Austriácos em Lourenço Marques, Maputo, Imprensa de Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, 2000; Walter Markov, "L'expansion autrichienne outre-mer et les intérêts portugaises 1777–81", in Congresso Internacional de História dos Descobrimentos, Actas, Volume V, II parte, Lisboa, 1961, pp.281–291.
Activities in India, 1776–1781