Indian Antiquary Vol 46

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 291

DECEMBER, 1917)
AUSTRIA'S COMMERCIAL VENTURE IN INDIA
277
AUSTRIA'S COMMERCIAL VENTURE IN INDIA IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. BY SIR R. C. TEMPLE, BT,
Introductory Remarks. wo and a half years ago my attention was drawn to a MS, account of a survey of the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1787 by Captain Alexander Kyd.1 In his description of Car Nicobar, Kyd refers as follows to a settlement made under the auspices of Austria in 1778 -
«The Imperial Company, by the advice of Mr. Bolts, ostablished a factory upon one of these Islands a few years ago, but no s'ipport was given to the first settlers, who being ill-supplied with every necessary for a hot climate and miserably lodged, mostly all perished, probably more from the above causes than from the baciness of the climate,"
In my endeavour to obtain further details of this settlement, I made a search among the India Office Records and found a number of documents dealing with Austria's attempt to seize & share of the trade with India. These I have extracted from the many ponderous tomes in which they are buried, and by the courtesy of the authorities of the India Office, I now reproduce them verbatim, only altering the punctuation where nocessary for the sense.
As I understand that a detailed work on William (or Willem) Bolts. and his career under the East India Company, as well as during his employment by Austria, is in preparation, I have not attempted to present an exhaustive history either of the mau or his schemes. I have merely made a collection of papers relative to the Austrian venture, arranging them in groups with suitable headings, and adding brief notes. to elucidate the text.
The papers so collected fall under the following divisions - 1. Measures taken in the Presidency of Bombay to nullify the Austrian enterprise. II. Measures taken by the Council at Fort William to obstruct the endeavours of
Bolte to trade in Bengal. III. Obstructive measures at Madras directed against individuals interested in the
Austrian venture. IV. Details and prospectus of the Triestine Society promoted by Bolts in 1783.
A few words regarding the man entrusted with the carrying out of Austria's plans for trade in the East are necessary to complete the story.
Willem Bolts, a Dutchman, was born in Holland c. 1735. He went to England when fiften years old, and thence to Lisbon, where he witnessed the great earthquake of 1755. Shortly afterwards he proceeded to India and arrived in Bengal subsequent to the tragedy of the Black Hole in June, 1756. Owing to the want of clerks, he was taken into the Company's service at Calcutta, became factor in 1762, and junior merchant and second in Council at Benares in 1765. In that year he was recalled to Calcutta and was charged with using the authority of the Company to further his own interests. In 1766 he resigned the Company's service and accepted a post as Alderman at Calcutta. From that time.
The account is to bs found in Factory Records, Straits Settlementa, Vol. II, Consultation at Fort William, 14 September, 1787 (India Omico Records). I had it copied and annotated it for printing in this Journal. The article, however, went down in the ill-fated Persia in December, 1915.