Letters Sent and Received by the Bushire Residency

IOR/R/15/1/1-5

Letters Sent and Received by the Bushire Residency

1763-1803

The volumes contain copies of correspondence sent to and from the Residency at Bushire, which was established on 12 April 1763 following the conclusion of a trade agreement with the Shaikh of Bushire. The Residency went into temporary abeyance from 1769 to 1775, owing to a deterioration in both trade and local political relations, and even on its re-establishment in 1775 its maintenance was for a time at a loss to the East India Company. From 1763 to 1778 the Bushire Residency reported to the Agency at Bussora [Basra], but in 1778 Bussora was downgraded to a Residency and responsibility for Bushire was transferred to the Governor and Council in Bombay. These reporting bodies are the principial correspondents with the Residency within these volumes. The main subjects of the correspondence are: financial and administrative matters relating to the Residency; trade; relations with local tribes, particularly the Bani Ka'b; and political developments in Persia, particularly with the Zand Dynasty. Other matters of note include ongoing hostilities and competition with the French, both in the Gulf and at Muscat, and political developments in Baghdad and Bussora.

The volumes have been arranged chronologically, using the date that each letter was either sent or received by the Residency at Bushire. Volumes 1, 2 and 5 contain a mixture of both incoming and outgoing correspondence; volume 3 contains only outgoing correspondence while volume 4 contains only incoming correspondence.

Public Record(s)

English

5 volumes (516 folios)

Unrestricted

There is a mixture of foliation and pagination across the volumes within this sub-sub-series, with volumes 1, 2, 4 and 5 using foliation and volume 3 using pagination.