PANEL 92    The Scots in India

After the victories of the Seven Years War and the prowess of Robert Clive and the armies of the East India Company, India became a vast source of raw materials for British industry as well as a market for manufactured goods. Until the middle of the 19th century, the subcontinent was controlled by this private company. It could conclude treaties, fight wars and defy governments. Henry Dundas was appointed President of the Board of Control and he oversaw the recruitment of many Scots in India. By 1792, one in nine working for the Company was Scots and a third of all the officers in its armies. Many fortunes were made. Scots invested so heavily in the India tea trade that production outstripped that of China. Dundee became a centre for the processing of jute. A vegetable fibre, it was used for making sacking, carpet and linoleum backing and many other purposes. So many Scots were resident in Calcutta, now Kolkata, that a regiment known as the Calcutta Scots was raised for the Indian army.

 

Panel stitched by:

Wardie Church Stitchers

Ann Bell

Karen Bowman

Susan Dyer

Rhona Else

Susan Fraser

Jean Jenkins

Frances Mackinnon

Fiona Mauritzen

Jane Prowse

Barbara Purdie

Janet Rust

Susie Standley

Jean Temple

Stitched in:

Edinburgh