Australia/India trade relations: 1788 - 1808

Many would be surprised to know that there were some years in the nineteenth century when Australia seemed to be a satellite of India as well as a colony of England and that cargoes from Bengal fed and equipped the colony and gave it a hangover. However it makes more sense when one considers that Australia and India were neighbouring British colonies and Australia was so far from England, and communication between the two was so irregular, that Sydney drifted into Asia's net of commerce. In this paper I investigate early trade links between India and Australia, 1788 to 1808. For example, in June 1792, the Atlantic arrived in Sydney from Calcutta with rice, flour, dholl (lentils), two bulls, one cow, twenty sheep and 20 goats. The most notable trade name to settle in Sydney was Robert Campbell from the house of Campbell and Clarke, a Calcutta trading Company. With items of trade like spirits, Indian rum, horses and spices - the possibilities were promising.