User:D.shiels/Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company

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Model of note: East India Company

Background

Chesney Expedition

Overview of Francis Rawdon Chesney surveys, motivations, commissioning, results. Basic sources are legion. Saleh has the dirty details.

(Lorimer vol i 226)

(Lorimer vol i 1341)

H.B. Lynch Command & Surveys

Henry Blosse Lynch (wiki article is a mess) assumes command & conducts his surveys of the Tigris. Early uses of the ships & trade details are in Lorimer. Thomas Kerr Lynch has his own writings & his ideas are addressed in Cole.

(Lorimer v.i 236) List of surveys conducted post-Chesney

(Lorimer v.i 227) Short ref. to establishment of Lynch company in context of British aims. "The largeness and almost exclusiveness of the part played by Britain in the opening up of Turkish 'Iraq by navigation, and by explorations and surveys to be mentioned later, begot in the minds of the local British officers about this time a habit of regarding the province almost as a British protectorate."

(Lorimer v.i 238) Mail service "in 1863 a mail steamer service between Basrah and Baghdad, subsidised by the Government of India, was arranged through the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company. The sailings were at first six-weekly, then fortnightly, and before long at the rate of three a month. "

(Lorimer v.ii 2461) More details on mail service "Por some time after 1868 Indian postage stamps were sold on board the steamers of the Euphrates and Tigris Company, and letters were delivered by the steamers at Qurnah, ‘'Amarah, ^ Ali-al-Gharbi and Kut-al-Amarah. as well as at other places where they touched. Stamped letters were also received on board the steamers for delivery at, or despatch through, Baghdad and Basrah."

(Lorimer v.i 1403) Lynch & Co purchase Magil

Founding & First Ventures

E&T S.N. Company Limited formed and incorporated in England on April 25th 1861.

Makiya tells a tight story, Longrigg gives a tight summary. Trade figures et al can be found in Owen, where we find our Svoboda citations. An early Diary mentions some profit numbers, which will be well placed here.

1863 - E&T Co. begins a mail service up the Tigris under contract from the Secretary of State for India. "For several years the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the river traffic ; their only competitors were native boats, taking sometimes 80 or 40 days to perform the voyage from Basrah to Baghdad, which was made by the steamers in 4 or 5 days. In 1866 the Tigris subsidy was raised to £4,800 a year in consideration of the service being made fortnightly ; and the Company of their own accord began to run three steamers a month, calling at ^Amarah, Kut-al-Amarah and other places intermediate between Basrah and Baghdad, in order to take advantage of the growing freight and passenger traffic." (Lorimer vol.ii 2443; PDF 952)

(Lorimer v.i 1460)Growth & farman disputes

Topics

Politics of Trade

Tensions with Turkey, competition with Oman-Ottoman Administration. Farman disputes, limits on number of ships allowed, barges, trade embargos. Longrigg & Makiya have good basics, Saleh and Cole have good story, Fattah has the details. Lorimer has absolutely everything and should probably be avoided here.