| Description | Business records, mainly trading accounts of the des Bouverie's dealings within the Levant or Turkey Company. They would trade on their own account, on behalf of others or just carry others' goods. The books reveal a complex pattern of trade, involving Aleppo, Amsterdam, Cadiz, Hamburg, London, Naples, Portsmouth, Scanderoon, Smyrna and Venice, institutions and ventures including the Bank of England, Royal African Company, the Royal Mint, the East India Company. Commodities ranged from Cyprus cottons to Gallipoli oil, from silver to tin, from silk to worsteds, peppers to cochineal. The prospect of great wealth has to be balanced against the inherent dangers of the business, namely attack by pirates, storm and fire. Customers and business associates included sir Stephen Evans, William III's jeweller, Abraham and Isaac Houblon, sir Bejamin Newland, Theodore Jacobsen, Peter Delme, Charles Shales, London goldsmith, and Elihu Yale, governor of Madras and benefactor of Yale University. |