French East India Companies

French East India Companies is a comprehensive and readable account of France's import trade with the Far East during the 17th and 18th centuries. France's Eastern trade was monopolized by two companies, La Compagnie des Indes Orientales (1664-1719) and La Compagnie des Indes (1719-1763), which operated on the basis of rights granted by the French Crown. Prior to 1664 and after 1763 a freer trade existed with India. This work is not only a succinct historical narrative of the two companies and trade between France and the Far East but an economic statistical analysis of this trade. The text is supplemented with an appendix that includes a detailed glossary of textile terms and 77 pages of statistical data from primary source material drawn from French archives and not previously collected nor published. The appendix makes French East India Companies an indispensable historical and economic resource.