The English Factory in Siam 1612-1685

This edition of more than 700 documents from the archives of the English East India Company is an important new source for the history of Southeast Asia. 17th-century Siam was a remarkably open society, where the English found themselves interacting not only with their hosts but also with Persians, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesians, Portuguese, French and Dutch. The surviving documents range from business correspondence and ships' journals to more intimate letters home, bitter denunciations of rivals and vicious pamphleteering.