Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India 18051830, Volume One: Ships, Men and Mansions - Hardcover
A little over two centuries ago, Penang became the fourth most important settlement a presidency of the British East India Companys Indian territories. The fateful decision changed Penangs future forever, reshaping it into a key player in the international trade network linking Europe with India and China. The first of a three-volume series, Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India presents an in-depth and compelling narrative of this fascinating period in history, focusing specifically on the role shipbuilding played, the leading political personalities, and two historic buildings that highlight the struggles, successes and failures of the early settlement. Illustrated with several never-before-seen paintings, engravings and maps, the volume and those to follow will be the authoritative reference for historians and general reader for generations to come.
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About the Author:
Born in England but transplanted to Australia early in life, Marcus Langdon is acknowledged as the leading authority on Penangs early history under the East India Company. He has published in scholarly journals and his research findings have been widely cited by heritage advocates, architects, conservationists and local historian. He currently lives in Penang.
Review:
If the British East India Company existed today, it would be a billion-dollar mega-corporation. Formed by a group of London-based merchants, it was granted a royal charter in 1600, and set out to conquer not just new markets and sources for spices, fabric and tea, but also to establish new territories from which to trade. It ruled large chunks of India with private armies for a century, until the British Crown assumed control in 1858 and ushered in the era of the Raj. In 1786 the company wanted a suitable port of refreshment and repair along the valuable trade route to China, and the tropical island of Penang, off the coast of western Malaysia in the Bay of Bengal, was deemed suitable for the job. Captain Francis Light, referred to as the founder of the British colony of Penang, negotiated rights on behalf of the company to use the island as a trading port. And had 250 cases of opium to use as funds to run the new settlement. Marcus Langdon is acknowledged as the leading authority on Penangs early history under the East India Company, and his book Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India 1803-1830, has finally been published after a decade of labor. Volume One: Ships, Men and Mansions was launched on March 3, 2013, at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel,grande dame of colonial-era accommodation in Penangs capital, George Town. Founded by the Sarkies brothers in 1885 who were also responsible for Raffles in Singapore it was the destination of choice for early celebrity travelers to the East, such as Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward. In 1805 Penang was still covered with areca nut palms when it became the fourth most important settlement a presidency of the East India Companys Indian territories. This fateful decision changed the islands future forever, reshaping it into a key player in the international trade network linking Europe with India and China. Penangs fortunes have waxed and waned, but with some of the best food in Southeast Asia, and George Town (along with Melaka, another historic city of the Straits of Malacca) a recipient of a 2008 UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site listing, the island is now becoming a key player in SE Asian tourism. Langdon started his book when he was still a member of the corporate world. Born in Britain in 1954, he was compiling a history of Melbourne in his adopted homeland of Australia when he discovered an ancestral connection with Penang. When I started to look for information I was pointed to the Straits Settlements records. At that time there were very few books on Penang, he said. I found so many fascinating things about Penang and its presidency. In 1977 he had gone backpacking in SE Asia and remembered George Town then as very multicultural: Indian, Malay, Chinese and all sorts of things in between, all in one area. As he started digging through records, he found many discrepancies between what was understood and perpetrated by academics about Penang, and what was recorded, and he was hooked. Abandoning the research he was doing on Melbourne, he became a man who worked the day job and spent holidays in archives. As far as the East India Company was concerned, Penangs value was in its location, across the Bay of Bengal from the east coast of India. Since 1784, when the British government appointed a Board of Controlto oversee the company, government and corporate interests had intertwined... --Carolyn ODonnell in The Huffington Post 03/07/2013
Marcus Langdon has become today the preeminetn global expert on the British archival materials relating to Penang.... The quality of this first volume assures us that...[it] will constitute the most detailed history of ever Penang ever to be published and will long remain a landmark in Penang historiography. --Geoff Wade, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
This monograph is extremely valuable. Marcus Langdon's scrupulous use of relatively inaccessible, handwritten primary documents, undertaken with the passion of a command researcher, is not likely to be replicated. --Loh Wei Leng, formerly University of Malaya
Marcus Langdon has become today the preeminetn global expert on the British archival materials relating to Penang.... The quality of this first volume assures us that...[it] will constitute the most detailed history of ever Penang ever to be published and will long remain a landmark in Penang historiography. --Geoff Wade, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
This monograph is extremely valuable. Marcus Langdon's scrupulous use of relatively inaccessible, handwritten primary documents, undertaken with the passion of a command researcher, is not likely to be replicated. --Loh Wei Leng, formerly University of Malaya
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherAreca Books
- Publication date2013
- ISBN 10 9675719079
- ISBN 13 9789675719073
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages493
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