PREPARATIONS OF THE AUSTRIAN EXPEDITION TOWARDS INDIA 1775-1776

Abstract

During the second half of the 18th century Austria’s trade policy sought to restore ties to India and other parts of Asia that had successfully existed during the period of the Ostend Company (1722-1731). In this respect, the increasingly successful activity of the British East India Company was an example for the Vienna government in indicating of which lucrative possibilities lay in the proper development of trade in the east. Austria soon decided to try to organize trade expeditions to India itself and the British experience was of primary importance to it. An indispensable link for the launch of such ventures was the opportunity for the representatives of the Austrian diplomatic network to meet directly with individuals from the group of traders who had already had extensive experience in trade with India. This was exactly the case in London in 1774, when the Austrian Ambassador Ludovico Luigi Carlo Maria di Barbiano di Belgiojoso met one of the most famous European entrepreneurs of the second half of the 18th century, William Bolts. It was the beginning of a new great Austrian adventure in Asia and at the same time an attempt to radically redefine the essential nature of the Habsburg position and philosophy. Immediately after the Austrian diplomatic network came into contact with Bolts, the sophisticated preparations of the expedition began, before the final take off in 1776.