Learning to trade
The English East India Company’s business strategy and activities in Tonkin (1672–1697)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24241462 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ngoc Dung Tran (0000-0001-9631-1097, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics), Anh Tuan Hoang (0000-0002-1767-8040, VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities), Xuan Thao Ninh (Hanoi National University of Education) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-22 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-27 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | South East Asia Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0967-828X • E-ISSN: 2043-6874 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0967828x.2026.2737428 |
| OpenAlex | W7224100339 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 40 |
This article analyses primary materials relating to the English Tonkin factory in the British Library to argue that the East India Company created a trading innovation by using Tonkin to connect with the potential markets of mainland China and India, rather than having to go through existing trading links. Their adaptations of business strategy and daily trade enabled them to learn and improve in the seventeenth century – a precursor to becoming a hugely powerful commercial organization in the next century. In this sense, the Tonkin factory represents a formative stage in the East India Company’s evolution: an early laboratory of commercial innovation where lessons learned from navigating environmental, political and competitive challenges laid the foundation for the Company’s emergence as a dominant global trading enterprise in the eighteenth century. By highlighting the interplay between local engagement, strategic experimentation and long-term organizational learning, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how early modern European trading companies constructed commercial power in Asia.
17th century · British East India Company · Business innovation · Business strategy · China trade · Indian trade · Organizational learning · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Historical Economic and Social Studies
ReOrient
Goods from the East, 1600-1800
English and French mercantilist thought and the matter of colonies during the 17 th century
Anglo–Vietnamese diplomatic relationship in the seventeenth century
The Survival of Empire
The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company 1660–1760
Silk for Silver
The Company-State
History and Historiography of the English East India Company
Technology Transfers and Organization
Chinese, Tartars and “Thea” or a Tale of Two Companies
The Trade of the English East India Company in Cambodia, 1651–1656
The Trade of the English East India Company in the Far East, 1623–1684. Part II
The English East India Company and Cochinchina (1614–1705)
John Company Armed
Regulation or Ruination
From Japan to Manila and Back to Europe
The Voyages of the “Sea Adventure” to Ayutthaya, 1615–1618
The East India Trade, The Politicians, and the Constitution
The Making and Unmaking of a Presidency
England’s Mercantilism
Naval Violence and Trading Privileges in Early Seventeenth-Century Asia
The Role of Tonkin and Taiwan in the English East India Company’s East Asian Commercial Strategy in the Late Seventeenth Century
Connected Histories
Another Set of Imperial Turns
Rethinking the Colonial State
Product Innovation in Early Modern London
The East India Company and the Export of Treasure in the Early Seventeenth Century
Malfeasance and the Foundations for Global Trade
| Highly cited | No |
|---|