Sources of statistics

The main sources of quantitative information on the English East India Company's official trade are the account books. These fall into two broad generic groups based on the geographical origin of the records: (a) the books kept by the Company's Accountant General's Department in London, and (b) the books originally compiled by the trading establishments in various parts of the Indies and sent over to London periodically. The first group can be divided further into three different types of account books: (i) the Commerce Journals, (2) General Ledger Books, and (3) the Cash Books. Group (b) comprises only (i) Commerce Journals and (ii) Ledger Books. Miscellaneous information is also available in the Company's outward letters preserved in the Despatch Books, Home Miscellaneous Series, and the Memoranda of the Committee of Correspondence, but the statistics contained in these records are not systematic nor are they of a long-run nature. The early Despatch Books give the names of the ships sailing for the Indies together with a summary of their cargo and its total value. However, the practice was discontinued from the 1680s. The Home Miscellaneous Series contains statistics covering four different areas of the Company's trade: exports to Asia, sales of import commodities, finance including its balance-sheets, list of shareholders, and capital stock, and finally the foreign exchange and bullion business of the Company.